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The Invitation

Global Growth

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Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

500 People from 43 Countries Celebrate New University of the Nations (UofN) Campus DNA Infusion Asia at Battambang, Cambodia in January (Dawn Gauslin)
500 People from 43 Countries Celebrate New University of the Nations (UofN) Campus
DNA Infusion Asia at Battambang, Cambodia in January (Dawn Gauslin)

Many of you joined us last month for The Invitation when we prayed for supernatural growth for ourselves and for our local communities. In a video last month YWAM leader Lynn Green talked about prophetic messages YWAM has received about ten-fold growth and he explained how praying for growth fits with themes in the Bible.

We asked you to provide growth plans that God has given your location so we could include those in The Invitation for this month as we pray for growth from a global perspective. We heard from many of you and we reached out to several of the ministries associated with YWAM to ask about their growth goals. These specific growth plans and prayers have been included in The Invitation for March and our prayer day on March 9.

As we prepare to pray for global goals, please watch this short video from YWAM’s founder Loren Cunningham about what to keep in mind as we pray for growth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzUyW_lTB1M

Next month is our final month for praying about growth and we will focus on prayer about persecution that often accompanies growth. If you have a specific prayer or story about persecution associated with growth, please share that with us by emailing prayer@ywam.org.

Also, from now on we are offering a new way to enter into The Invitation. You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.

Looking back and seeing the progress, and looking ahead I know there is much more to come. What’s going to happen in the future is more exciting than what’s happened in the past.

Kevin Sutter, YWAM Frontier Mission

 Prepare to Pray:

  • Invite your location to spend some time corporately and individually listening to God and ask Him to speak to you regarding YWAM growth in general and regarding specific requests that have been outlined below.
    • Corporately: Watch the video from Loren Cunningham about praying for supernatural growth. Ask your worship team to design a time of worship that praises God and incorporates who God is and what God does.
    • Individually: Ask God to speak to you as you review the story of Noah (Genesis 6 – 10). Think about the faith that Noah had to be so obedient as to build an ark so far inland. Think about your own faith. Is God showing you an area where you can be more obedient to build what He wants you to build? (Inspired by YWAM Perth.)

Quote from John 3:30, "He Must Increase, I Must Decrease"

As you pray:

  • Pray as Jesus prayed: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).
  • Pray for all YWAMers to be aware of global goals that God has given YWAM and that each will understand their part.
  • Pray for building of character. Pray for leaders of YWAM teams and ministries to effectively disciple staff and students to have a “Jesus” character so that non-believers see Jesus in them and come to faith. (From YWAM Perth.)
  • Pray for YWAM staff and students to have faith to live the growth. Pray that we will repent of any unbelief related to provision and growth. Pray that we will trust God with all our heart. (From YWAM Sertão, Brazil.)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

Pray for global growth:

  • Pray for the following growth goals and prayer requests from various YWAM ministries:
    • End Bible Poverty Now: Pray that all the remaining 1,776 Bible-less languages would have at least a verbal recording of the New Testament by Christmas 2020 as a gift to Jesus (endbiblepovertynow.com).
    • Frontier Mission: For several years, God has been speaking to our YWAM Frontier Missions leadership team to believe Him for supernatural increase in the harvest.With a focus upon making new disciples and starting Disciple-Making Movements, they have set a goal: “10X and Beyond!” Ten times the number of new believers and ten times the number of new movements among the unreached. Over the past few years, they have already seen a three-fold increase in disciple-making movements. Pray for God to lead them to the fulfillment of their goal to see a 10-times increase by 2020.
    • Mercy Ministry: Pray for YWAM and its partners to have 18,000 mercy ministry staff in 200 countries by 2020 ministering to 50 million of the poorest and most vulnerable people.
    • City Ministries: Pray for urban ministry teams in every one of the 40,000 cities worldwide where YWAM does not yet have a long-term presence.
    • YWAM Ships: Pray for a fleet of 40 ships serving isolated islands and rivers throughout the world. The current fleet stands at 25 vessels. Pray also for trust to develop between YWAM ships and the governments of nations so that YWAM can engage the spheres of the nation where doors are open.
    • Horn of Africa: Last month a group of YWAM pioneers met in Somaliland, a country that does not yet have long term YWAM presence, and they prayed for growth in their region. Pray for their goals for the next two years: four teams on the ground in Somaliland, a beachhead into Yemen, and six-fold growth in workers in another Horn of Africa country.
    • YWAM DNA Infusion Asia reports that God has given the body of Christ in Cambodia a vision to see a church planted in every village by 2021. Please pray for this.
    • Mission Builders currently equips between 500 and 1,000 volunteers to serve 20-100 YWAM ministry centers each year. Pray for their long-term faith goal to raise up 15,000 volunteers each year to serve every YWAM ministry that has a need. They also want to thank everyone who prayed for them last year. They were able to pay off their mortgage by December 31, 2016.
    • YWAM Associates USA: Pray for God to use the transition and changes in leadership to reveal His growth plans for YWAM Associates.
    • University of Nations: Pray for effectiveness in serving where the need is greatest, supporting students in completing tracks and degrees and developing courses and tracks that empower people to engage.
    • Homes of Hope is currently building 390 homes for the poor each year in 9 different locations. Pray for their growth goal to build 600 homes for the poor each year involving 12,000 volunteers.

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

1 Corinthians 4:20

Dedication Ceremony for the New University of Nations Campus in Battambang, Cambodia (Dawn Gauslin)
Dedication of New University of Nations Campus in Battambang, Cambodia (Dawn Gauslin)

Take Action:

  • If you missed this video from last month, watch Lynn Green speaking about prayer for growth

Global map with the waters being covered by YWAM Ships
YWAM Ships: Goal of 40 Ships
  • Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
  • Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture.
  • Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Representatives from YWAM Blantyre, YWAM Kona and YWAM Hernhutt Praying in Malawi in January during The Invitation
Representatives from YWAM Blantyre, YWAM Kona and YWAM Hernhutt Praying in Malawi in January during The Invitation

How We Prayed

February 2017 – Growth – Local

  • YWAM Perth, Australia was praying for their YWAM locations in East Asia when they sensed that God was telling them to communicate their specific prayers for YWAM globally. (See prayers above related to obedience and character.)
  • YWAM Sertão, Brazil shared prayers noted above and reported that God gave them the word “people” regarding local growth.
  • YWAM Colombia: A woman from YWAM Colombia shared several topics for future prayer. Topics included family, marriage and others.
  • A Chilean asked for prayers for his country where there are outbreaks of fire, specifically that the fires would cease and that Chileans would turn to God in genuine and humble ways.
  • A Syrian refugee requested prayer for his family seeking resettlement in Argentina.
  • YWAM Tallinn, Estonia prayed and listened and sent this photo of their time with the Lord:
Sketch of a tree with the words Growth, Unity, and Foundation emphasized
The Invitation – February 2017 – YWAM Tallinn, Estonia

The Invitation – February 2017 – YWAM Tallinn, Estonia

 January 2017 – Unity – Building Bridges

  • YWAM Blantyre, Malawi reported that God brought representatives from over 10 countries covering five of the six continents to their location in early January. Staff and students from YWAM Kona, YWAM Hernhutt and YWAM Blantyre prayed for unity in YWAM and within the church. After praying for each continent they went out in mixed teams to pray in the community. They also prayed that YWAM would be an effective vehicle in drawing the body of Christ together.
  • At the YWAM DNA Infusion Asia Conference in Battambang, Cambodia almost 500 people prayed for unity within the body of Christ. They also thanked the architects of the new campus for their story of dependence on God for every detail of their work.

 How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Psalm 133:1

(Cited by YWAM Blantyre during prayer.)

Future Topics:

  • April 13, 2017 Growth: Persecution
  • May 11, 2017 Spiritual Formation
  • June 8, 2017 Back to Jerusalem

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

  • Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
  • Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
  • Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
  • You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
  • If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Related posts:

30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World June 6 – July 5, 2016 YWAM Property – Extraordinary Gifts from God Collection of Tomatoes making the name "Grow"Local Growth
The Invitation

Local Growth

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Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Group of YWAM Students in Papua New Guinea
YWAM Medical Ships Expands in Papua New Guinea to build a Youth Training Campus in Alotau

YWAM began with a vision of growth. A young man, Loren Cunningham, saw a mental picture of wave after wave of young people covering the continents. A few years ago, YWAM received two more messages about growth, prophetic pictures of YWAM growing ten-fold, from 20,000 to 200,000 missionaries. YWAM’s leaders prayed about these words and sensed they were from God, and in keeping with a consistent theme throughout the Bible. Said Lynn Green, one of YWAM’s leaders, “growth is just intrinsic to the kingdom of God.”

For the next three months of 2017, we invite you to pray about growth. In February we invite you to ask God, do these messages about ten-fold growth apply to me and my community? If so, how?

To better understand what this prayer could look like, watch this video from Lynn Green, prepared specifically for The Invitation in February (for a transcript, see the bottom of this file):

Then, after you pray, if you sense God giving you a vision about growth please share it with us. You can do so by emailing prayer@ywam.org.

In March, we will pray for these faith goals as well as for other global goals in YWAM that seek supernatural increase.

Then in April The Invitation will again focus on growth, specifically on persecution that often accompanies growth and expansion.

As we begin this season of prayer for increase, consider this promise from the apostle Paul:

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (1 Corinthians 9:10).

Prepare to Pray:

  • If possible, try to set aside at least 30 minutes to quietly listen for God’s leading.
  • Watch the video of Lynn Green speaking on “Praying for Growth through The Invitation”.

  • Meditate on scripture that gives you insight into expansion and ask God to reveal understanding to you and the others at your location.
    • 1 Corinthians 3:6-7: “I planted,Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
    • Matthew 9:37-38: “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
    • Matthew 13: The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
    • John 15:1-17: The vine and the branches.
    • Genesis 12:1-3: God’s covenant with Abraham.
    • Acts 2 with focus on Acts 2:47: “…praising God andhaving favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
  • Discuss: What has God already said to you about growth?
Posted by YWAM Frontier Missions

The Mystery and Industry of Kingdom Growth (March 2015)

Pray:

  • Pray for God to give you confidence about growth and that He would take away any fear associated with growth.
  • Ask God to show you if you have any pride, unrighteousness or sin to repent of before God can entrust you with growth. Take time to listen. Respond to what you hear.
  • Ask God to show you if these words to YWAM about growth apply to you and your location. Again, take time to listen.
  • If so, ask God to reveal what He would like this growth to look like. You could ask specifically about locations, spheres, ministries, people groups, partnerships, etc. Again, take an extended time to seek God’s voice.
  • If you are praying in a group, give time for each person to report what they have sensed from God. Then pray over what you hear.
  • Pray for God to reveal to you and your location the action that needs to be taken now to achieve His vision for your location. Also pray for God to sustain the energy and enthusiasm for growth year after year.

Take Action:

  • Please send your vision, faith goals and prayer requests about growth to prayer@ywam.org so we can include your requests and goals in The Invitation for March.
  • Read “Letter from Loren, Part 2” on Growth.
  • Watch the video from the University of the Nations Workshop in 2013 where Bruce Wilkinson challenged the group to “never be satisfied with results that do not require the intervention of God” (start at 20:15; challenge at 2:04:04).

Photo of an All Generation DTS at YWAM Harpenden
YWAM Harpenden – A Unique Season of Training and Growth
  • Review YWAM’s foundational values and consider how they are the guiding principles for future growth: http://www.ywam.org/about-us/values/
  • Conduct a retreat. Depending on where your location is at regarding visioning and planning for growth, use the suggestions for this month as a guide for your time of prayer and goal setting together.
  • Share the vision for growth God gives you with ministry partners from your church and other organisations. Encourage them to pray for you and encourage them to seek God regarding ten-fold growth for themselves.
Collection of Tomatoes making the name "Grow"
YWAM New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 
  • Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
  • Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture.
  • Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

January 2017 – Unity – Building Bridges

  • YWAM Kona, Hawaii prayed during their morning intercessory time. Among other topics, they were led to pray for unity with the persecuted church so that they would see many Muslims come to Jesus.
  • In response to the second-Thursday post about The Invitation, there was a lively conversation on YWAM’s Facebook page about unity. In the discussion, one YWAMer cited Ephesians 4:1-6.
  • YWAM Tbilisi, Georgia reported on Facebook that they had a great time praying for unity among themselves, missions groups and all denominations of churches. They also noted there is much division on this topic and if we want to win their region for Christ we must come together.
  • A woman in central Asia provided a description of a vision God has given her regarding all Muslims coming to faith only when there is unity and humility of the wider church.
Building in Perth, Australia
Provision for YWAM Perth to accommodate ever-growing numbers (June 2016)

Future Topics:

  • March 9, 2017 Growth: Global
  • April 13, 2017 Growth: Persecution
  • May 11, 2017 Spiritual Formation

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

  • Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
  • Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
  • Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
  • If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Transcription of Video: Lynn Green on Praying for Growth

For The Invitation – February 2017

The Invitation to pray for this month of February is about growth.

Now growth is just an intrinsic part of the kingdom of God. That is implied through all of Scripture, but there’s one picture in particular that I love. It’s that dream that God gave king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 and Daniel interpreted it. And there is in that dream a stone that is cut out of the side of the mountain without the aid of any human agency, no hands. And the stone strikes the oppressive statue of the kingdom of mankind and the statue crumbles and the wind blows it away. And the stone grows and grows and grows until it becomes a mountain that covers the entire earth. That’s such a good picture of the kingdom.

So growth should be a part of anything that is being done in obedience to God. But, God speaks specific things to us to stimulate our faith. And I want to remind you of two things that God has said to YWAM:

  • First of all, the original covenant, the initial covenant that gave birth to YWAM, the map of the world with the waves that God showed Loren in 1956, waves of young people. It was wave after wave after wave, then it’ll stop, there may be a time where the water level goes down a bit, but then it gets higher, it gets higher, and I believe that we are ready for another big wave.
  • But more than that, starting several years ago God brought us a word from a prophetic teacher in YWAM about 200,000 new missionaries. And then, at the same time, a pastor who none of us knew very well wrote to Loren and said God had given him a word about ten-fold growth. And because we were around 20,000 at the time those are really strong, confirming words. And we all prayed about it and felt “yes” to that and we don’t want to lose sight of that.

So that’s why this Invitation is about growth. Because when God says “growth,” what He wants us to do, whenever He gives us a prophetic word like that, is to test it, which we’ve done, and then say “Amen” and believe it and start acting in accordance with it.

So the challenge for every YWAM location that is praying into this month’s Invitation is:

  • What is God saying to you about growth?
  • What would it be like to be 10 times as large, not all in one location, but for say 50 people, what would it be like to grow to 500? How many other locations should you be planting out? What other nations are you called to? What are your circuits?

So, during this time, I’d like to think that everybody in YWAM would be able to pray with confidence that God has spoken and said He wants us to grow.

So then we would say: “How?”

  • Does it have to do with all the spheres?
  • Does it have to do with the great Chinese missions movement?
  • Or the growth of the body of Christ in India?
  • Or somewhere in Africa?
  • Or all of the above?

What part does God have for us to play and to believe Him for, for this growth that will lead to, in the end, hundreds of thousands of new people added to the missions force? And YWAM can continue to play the role that God has for us.

So, may the Lord give you confidence that He has spoken to us about growth and lead you specifically to set goals for growth that He’s given you that you can hang on to by faith and see it come to pass. God bless you as you pray.

Related posts:

YWAM Property – Extraordinary Gifts from God 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World June 6 – July 5, 2016 Praying for Local Governments
The Invitation

Unity – Building Bridges

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Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

The Cunninghams Meeting with (left to right) Justin Welby, Head of the Anglican Church; Pope Francis, Head of the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Twadros II, Head of the Coptic Church to End Bible Poverty

A great awareness has been taking place on a worldwide level that is bringing people from different confessions and denominations together in Christian unity. Recent events include a global gathering held in Jerusalem to link the east and the west; an event commemorating the 500th year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in which Lutherans, Catholics and many other denominations celebrated Christian unity; and the upcoming annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 18 – 25th in which many YWAMers and denominations are involved.

Some have described Christian unity as the process of becoming one or oneness vs. having a focus on one denomination’s distinctions over another’s. The process of becoming one involves having a greater focus on the workings of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; affectionately loving our Christian brothers and sisters even if we do not agree completely with the doctrine of their denomination; focusing on the essentials of the Christian faith as opposed to the details of one denomination or another, and humbling ourselves like Christ. In humility, we can perceive that the Body of Christ exists within and outside different Christian expressions.  Though we might agree with the theology of a particular church or denomination, we know that does not mean everyone who attends there is a believer, but there are also Godly believers who are members of churches or confessions with whom we might disagree. We all seek to have a Biblical faith and theology but we all reach different conclusions.

Jesus spoke of unity: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—“ (John 17:22). Paul prayed for and encouraged unity:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Romans 15:5-7

One of YWAM’s eighteen foundational values includes being interdenominational. YWAM believes this denominational diversity is a positive factor that contributes to the health and growth of the mission. Some examples of YWAMers working interdenominationally for Christian unity are:

  • YWAM Egypt’s work within Coptic churches.
  • Based upon a long-standing relationship between a YWAM leader and the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who became Pope Francis, the Pope has received YWAM leaders and sent greetings to YWAM events. Watch this video of YWAM praying for Pope Francis: http://www.ywam.org/blog/avada_portfolio/alejandros-prayer-for-pope-francis-loren-cunningham.
  • The work of YWAM’s Kerygma network (http://kerygma.network/) in the Catholic world.
  • Many who teach in YWAM training schools have been drawn from a wide variety of denominations and confessions.
  • In the Middle East, many of our staff and leaders identify themselves as Orthodox.
  • Many YWAMers have joined in with regional and global Gatherings of Watchmen for the Nations, where unity has been a major theme over recent years, bridging divisions within the Chinese church and between Christians from different tribes and nations.

Please join us this month in praying for YWAMers and other Christians to have a heart for fellowship in the body of Christ across institutional barriers, even in polarized communities.

Prepare to Pray:

  • Read Acts 15 and ask the Father to:
    • Reveal who, by your mouth, needs to hear the gospel and believe
    • Provide clarity for your ministry regarding:
      • Living harmoniously with other Christians
      • Diversity that needs grace and/or forgiveness
    • Reveal how your location can achieve a higher level of unity with churches and partners in your area
    • Reveal to you where your particular views may be limiting unity
  • Consider beginning your prayer meeting by watching Alejandro Rodriguez’s prayer for Pope Francis and then join in with that prayer.

  • Review countries in your area to identify specific prayer needs regarding Christian unity.
YWAMers in India in a Way of the Cross
YWAMers in India join local Catholics and other Christians in a ‘Way of the Cross’ (Cassius Soares)

Pray:

  • Pray for a greater vision of a united Church and that the love of Christ would become a means and motive for reconciliation.
  • Pray that we would obtain a greater sense of wonderment regarding our Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit so that we would not be focused on the little things.
  • Pray for a deeper appreciation for the unity within the Godhead.
  • Pray for relational unity with other Christians where relationships are strained and love is lacking.
  • Pray that we would refrain from the temptation to compare our best with the others worst areas when we talk of other Christians. Pray that we would rather focus on and believe in the marvelous work of Christ in the others.
  • Pray for Christians and churches to focus on beliefs that unite us, which is much stronger and greater than what divides us. Pray also for humility and respect in addressing divisions.
  • Pray for heartfelt repentance starting with ourselves, where we have built walls of sinfulness out of pride, fear, independence, selfishness, etc.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13

  • Pray for YWAM ministries that serve diverse churches and that build Christian unity.
  • Pray for the 250 YWAMers that call the Middle East their home. Pray for unity in partnerships so that the people of the Middle East will meet their Savior.
  • Pray for YWAMers to have clarity on essentials of the Christian faith.
  • Praise God for the opportunities we have to work with people from different denominations and confessions and ask Him to give us wisdom in modeling Christian unity the way Christ would.
  • Pray for the leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
  • YWAM Kerygma requests prayer for Catholics and Protestants to be open to learning from each other so that they can love and reach the poor and unreached together.
  • Pray for oneness with your partner churches and other Christian organizations in your area.
  • Pray that deep rooted historical differences will be resolved in a spirit of love.
  • Pray for YWAMers to grow in their ability to love everyone and to be humble.
  • Pray for YWAMers to be true ambassadors of reconciliation, proclaiming this reconciliation in word and deed to all the world. Pray that we would lead as examples and facilitate for others the breaking down of walls, building of bridges and opening doors to new ways of living to the communities to whom we reach.
Youth at the Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Commemoration
Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Commemoration – October 2016

(The Lutheran World Federation)

Take Action:

  • Find ways to celebrate Jesus and what we share in common with other Christians and together pray for your area.
  • Join together with other Christians in outreaches to serve the poor and marginalized in your area.
  • Ask open questions of other Christians about beliefs and practices from their tradition which puzzle you, with a genuine humility and desire to learn.
  • Read the first five pages of the booklet for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 18 – 25 produced by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and develop a plan for your involvement. Consider facilitating a joint prayer service for Christians and churches in your area sometime during the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” (Jan.18th-25th).  You could use the suggestions on pg.13-24 as a guide for such a gathering.
Bishop of Aleppo, Syria Speaks on stage at Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Commemoration
Bishop of Aleppo, Syria Speaks at Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Commemoration in October 2016

(The Lutheran World Federation)

Homeless Christian families in Pakistan
Homeless Christians in Pakistan (YWAM.org)
The aftermath and result of a Bomb that Exploded next to St Mark's Cathedral
Bomb Explodes next to St Mark’s Cathedral which is home to the office of the Orthodox Christian Pope Tawadros II [AP]
  • Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
  • Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture.
  • Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Quote From Corrie Ten Boom stating, "Be united with other Christians. A will with loose bricks is not good. The bricks must be cemented together."
From Church Unite Facebook

How We Prayed

December 2016 – Paris

  • YWAM York, United Kingdom prayed against loneliness and bitterness in Paris, for generous hospitality, and that the gospel would be distinctive and would shine bright against the backdrop of humanism and the occult.
  • YWAM Blantyre, Malawi prayed all day and YWAMers signed up for certain times.
  • YWAM Ports De Vie, France joined The Invitation during their weekly base intercessory time. They report that it was a great privilege to pray for their brothers and sisters in Paris and for the city itself and its inhabitants.
  • YWAM Orlando, United States focused during The Invitation on prayer for Paris refugees and terrorism.
YWAM Orlando Praying
YWAM Orlando Praying on December 8 (YWAM Orlando Facebook)
  • YWAM Ituzaingo, Argentina prayed for refugees to know the way of salvation and for YWAM bases to open where refugees are living.
  • A woman in Jakarta who attended a DTS several years ago reported that the Lord had led her ministry two months ago to travel to Paris and other European cities to pray against darkness and to preach the Gospel December 8 – 18, 2016. Thirty nine team members travelled to Paris on December 8 to start this mission trip.
  • YWAM Tallinn, Estonia prayed for Paris and shared a photo of their white board.
Paris prayer white board - "Migrant People, Terrorism, The Occult, YWAM Paris, Spiritual Breakthrough".
From YWAM Tallinn, Estonia

 Future Topics:

  • February 9, 2017 Growth: Local
  • March 9, 2017 Growth: Global
  • April 13, 2017 Growth: Persecution

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

  • Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
  • Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
  • Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook post on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
  • If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Related posts:

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The Invitation

Paris

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Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Paris, The City of Lights
Paris, The City of Lights

Paris has been nicknamed the “city of lights” because it was one of the first cities to have gas lights in the streets, specifically 56,000 gas lights in the 1860s. However, in recent years Paris has been far from being a “city of lights” from a gospel perspective. Tim Svoboda of YWAM’s City Ministries includes Paris in his list of the top five “Super Giant” cities where there is a stronghold of darkness (the others are Kolkata, Moscow, Pyongyang and Tokyo).

Recent events though—terrorist threats and attacks, the financial crisis and the refugee crisis—may be reason for a change, one that YWAM Paris leader Carrie Webb describes as “a definite shift in the spiritual atmosphere of Paris. What used to be an extremely hard ground has been cracked open and a plowing of the field has started.” Carrie also notes the role that prayer and past and present missionaries have played in cracking the ground.

Please join us this month in praying for breakthroughs in Paris.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:5

 Prepare to Pray:

  • Read this account of YWAM’s Summer of Service in Paris to obtain an understanding of the shift in how people are responding to the gospel in Paris: https://spark.adobe.com/page/EUAD3l5MwzB8W/
  • Picture Paris more clearly using these statistics (sources New York Times, Wikipedia, YWAM Archives, Operation World):
    • Over 12 million people live in Paris and the surrounding area making it the largest city in Western Europe.
    • Paris is one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe. Approximately 20% of its population was born outside France and 41.3% of people under 20 have at least one immigrant parent.
    • 100 migrants arrive daily as of November 2016 with 3,000 camped in tents in just one area of the city.
    • Religious affiliation:
      • High population of atheists and non-religious
      • 7 million Muslims, or 10 – 15% of population
      • 320,000 Jews, or just under 3% of population
      • Declining Catholic population
      • 2% of population or less are Evangelicals
YWAM Paris DTS Students standing in front of the Louvre
YWAM Paris DTS Students at the Louvre (from YWAM Paris, Instagram)

Pray:

Migrant People

  • Pray for safety and provision for migrant people living in Paris.
  • Pray for police and other workers to have wisdom and grace when working with displaced people.
  • Pray for the hearts of Parisians to be open to welcoming migrant people. Pray that the government would have wisdom and generosity in caring for immigrants.
  • Praise God for the growth of the church amongst the immigrants from Africa. Pray that the Africans can related the Gospel to the French.

Terrorism

  • Pray for the families of the victims and those who were injured in the Paris bombings last year (November 2015) and the terrible trauma of the Nice lorry attack last summer. In Paris, the attackers killed 130people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre. Another 368 people were injured, more than 80 seriously. Pray also for healing and for an awareness of eternal things for people traumatized in Paris as a whole.
  • Pray for those who planned and executed the Paris attacks and for their families that God would reveal the truth to them.
Map of France with Mini-Eiffel Tower sitting over Paris
Paris – Key for the Gospel (Source: Pexels)

The Occult

  • Pray against the occult. There are ten times more people earning a living via the occult than there are evangelical pastors and missionaries in Paris.
  • Pray for continued Spirit-led unity among the small number of Christians in Paris so that darkness is defied.
  • Pray that Parisians would see the light of Christ and that they would be repelled from the dark ways of the occult.
YWAM Paris Staff standing in front of graffiti on a wall
YWAM Paris Staff (from YWAM Paris, Instagram)

Spiritual Breakthroughs

  • Pray for spiritual strongholds to be broken. Pray that the people of France would turn their hearts toward God as things are being shaken and the question, “What do we really believe?” is being asked.
  • Pray for the new wave of spiritual movement towards Christ in Paris. Pray for heads of families, single people, the elderly, students, Muslims, Jews, and others.
  • Pray for the church to “look” French.
  • The number of evangelicals is growing. Pray for continued multiplication of churches and for safe places to worship in every one of the 20 arrondissements, or administrative districts in Paris.
  • Pray for church denominations that are currently dead in Paris, but should they awaken have huge potential.
  • Pray for the North African Muslims and for the missionaries that work amongst them. The ratio of missionaries to Muslims is very low.
  • Pray for God to send missionary workers to France. Pray for effective training to prepare these workers for the spiritual climate and challenges in Paris.
  • Pray for the relatively small number of Christians in Paris to show the love and empathy of Christ to this city in crisis situations, whether it be refugees, terror attacks, homelessness or people in everyday life situations.
Collage of YWAM Paris Leaders in one photo, and a DTS advert in another image
YWAM Paris Leaders and Discipleship Training School

YWAM Paris

  • Pray for affordable housing for students and staff.
  • Pray for provision of a building to use as a hub that accommodates most of the housing, community areas, dining room and lecture rooms needed for staff and students.
  • Pray for favor for YWAM Paris with visas.
  • Pray for opportunities for YWAM to get more involved with refugees in Paris. Pray for new connections and strategic people who have solid information.
  • Pray that God would open the door for YWAM to partner with more organizations and churches in Paris.
  • Pray that YWAM’s capacity would expand for the needs and opportunities of Paris and that resources would become available for training and for reaching the poor and needy. Pray for God to send innovative people and ideas to respond to the numerous people groups, needs and opportunities Paris offers.
Christmas Card from YWAM Paris saying "Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel"
Merry Christmas, With love from YWAM Paris

Take Action:

Three YWAMers walking towards the Eiffel Tower along the river in Paris
YWAMers in Paris (from YWAM Paris Instagram)
  • General
    • Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
    • Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture.
    • Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

November 2016 – Spheres of Society

  • YWAM Madison posted that they prayed for the spheres of society, specifically that they prayed for teachers in the sphere of Education.
  • YWAM Kona students took time during class to go to their prayer room and prayed for Jesus to be made known all over the nations through all the spheres.

July 2016 – Refugees

  • YWAM Hong Kong prayed for refugees using a large floor map.
YWAM Hong Kong Praying for Refugees over a large world map
YWAM Hong Kong Praying for Refugees

February 2016 – Governments

  • YWAM Hong Kong and YWAM Paris prayed for governments:
Two Diagrams, one of YWAM Hong Kong with the Seven Spheres of Society around it, the other with a map of France and photos of politicians on it
YWAM Hong Kong and YWAM Paris Prayed for Governments

Future Topics:

  • January 12, 2017 Unity – Building Bridges

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

  • Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
  • Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
  • Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook post on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
  • If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

Related posts:

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The Invitation

Spheres of Society

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Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God. He is inviting you!

Group of YWAMers Celebrating the Spheres at YWAM Together 2016
Celebrating the Spheres at YWAM Together 2016

In 1975, Loren Cunningham sensed God giving him a message about God’s desire to see transformation in every sphere of society. Shortly thereafter Loren found out that other Christian leaders had sensed God giving them essentially the same message. Those leaders included Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and author Francis Schaeffer.

At the YWAM Together 2016 event held in Kansas City in September, YWAMers, YWAM alumni, and friends of YWAM from all spheres met as a large and extended family to experience the presence of God and to dialog about the spheres at a more practical implementation level than has been done before.

Please join us this month in praying for the seven spheres of society: family, economics, government, religion, education, media and celebration.

God wants every nation to be able to experience the transformative impact of the kingdom of God in every dimension of its cultural life, shaping every sphere of society.

David Hamilton

 Prepare to Pray:

  • Review each of the seven spheres of society. See God Revealed Through the Spheres of Society by David Hamilton: http://www.ywam.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/God-Revealed-through-the-Spheres-of-Society.pdf
  • Spend some time with the Lord and ask Him to speak to you in a fresh way about the seven spheres:
    • The Sphere of Family
    • The Sphere of Economics (Science, Technology & Business)
    • The Sphere of Government
    • The Sphere of Religion
    • The Sphere of Education
    • The Sphere of Media (Communication)
    • The Sphere of Celebration (Arts, Entertainment & Sports)
  • List the spheres impacted by ministries associated with your location.
  • List friends of YWAM that are conducting ministries or that have ministry opportunities in spheres other than religion. Ask the Lord how you and your location could serve these individuals.
Collage of four photos showing the a YWAM ship in PNG, camera crew, children playing a balloon, and a IT Discipleship Training School
Some of the spheres YWAM ministers in. Top, left to right: Pacific Link Arrives in Papua New Guinea – Sphere of Government; YWAM Harpenden – Sphere of Media. Bottom: YWAM Madison – Sphere of Education; YWAM Nigeria Information Technology DTS – Sphere of Media

Pray:

  • For more effective discipling of the nations through a better understanding of the spheres.
  • For God to teach us how to righty represent him in all of these different arenas of society.
  • That new tools available for understanding the spheres from a biblical perspective will help us work more faithfully in God’s purpose for every societal sphere of influence. (For more info on one resource, see the SourceView Bible at sourceviewbible.com.)
  • For increased collaboration and communication with people working within specific spheres, such as YWAM alumni and friends of YWAM.
Person playing a guitar
Sphere of Religion. YWAM Metro New York
  • For the University of Nations partnerships for developing training for the spheres.
  • For effective partnerships and relationships between traditional YWAM and spheres and between people from one sphere to another.
  • For wisdom for YWAM leaders as YWAM “multiplies” and grows at a faster pace due to sphere ministries.
  • That our growth/multiplication would be a movement generated by the Spirit of God.
  • For a communication infrastructure that will effectively support the anticipated growth of YWAM in all the spheres.
  • For understanding among Christian workers of the importance of all spheres for building God’s kingdom.
Person holding a sparkler with words "Celebration - Discover the gift of God in each other"
Sphere of Celebration
  • For a spirit of teachability regarding spheres among YWAMers.
  • For YWAMers to be grounded in God and His Word so that we bring biblical value to the spheres.
  • For YWAMers to be in the world but not conformed to it.

Each sphere plays a unique role in seeing “God’s kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

YWAM Kona

Special Prayer Focus:

Pray for a YWAMer who was kidnapped in Africa in mid-October. Through his holistic work into several spheres of society he and his team have improved living conditions amongst peoples living in isolated and harsh conditions. During the kidnapping, two guards were killed. Please pray for this man’s release, pray for his wife and children, and please pray for the families of the two guards. (Do pray, but the authorities tell us: do not post any information or comments about this man on social media or websites.)

Screenshot of the sourceview Bible app on an iPhone and a Samsung Smart Phone
The spheres in the SourceView Bible App

 

Take Action:

  • Download the YWAM Together workbook http://ywamkc2016.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Sphereview-Devotional.pdf
    • Read about beauty, order and abundance and fill out the Discovering Kingdom Metrics to Disciple the Nations work sheet on pages 26-27 of the workbook.
    • Read about the Belief Tree and fill out The Belief Tree and the Seven Spheres of Influence worksheet on pages 30-35 of the workbook.
    • Read about the domains of authority and the spheres of influence and fill out the Understanding The Domains of Authority worksheet on pages 36 – 43 of the workbook.
    • Complete the Preparing for Transformation questionnaire found on page 47.
  • Find out more about the SourceView Bible application and download it:

Everyone is called to impact the spheres of society. If you hold that God is the creator and sustainer of all things then the farmer who milks the cows; the driver who delivers the milk and the cashier who sells you the milk are all God’s agents to feed and care for the world.

Beth Senn, YWAM alumni working in the sphere of Celebration

How We Prayed – October 2016 – A Year of Answered Prayer

  • YWAMers noted on Facebook where they prayed: Australia, Mexico, Malawi, Canada, USA, Brazil, Korea, Papua New Guinea, India, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Nepal, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Norway, Philippines, and Italy.
YWAM Together stage with 10 people discussing the sphere of family
YWAM Together 2016 – Report on Sphere of Family

Future Topics:

  • December 8 – Paris

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

  • Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
  • Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
  • Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook post on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hash tag #praywithywam.
  • If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org

Related posts:

YWAM Together Praying for Local Governments Quote, "The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." by Samuel ZwemerA Year of Answered Prayer