Free Prayer Walking Seminar - March 30

I want to invite you to join me for a free webinar training on prayerwalking, March 30 from 8:00-9:00 PM eastern time. This opportunity is being offered in cooperation with Chris Walker of Evangelismcoach.org.

Chris is an evangelism trainer who lives in Panama, Central America and travels throughout North and South America to train people in evangelism. He also maintains Evangelismcoach.org, an evangelism blog that I read quite frequently. When you sign up for the webinar, you will be given the option of connecting to the session either via the internet or telephone. If you connect via the internet, you will see the visuals as well as hear the audio portion of the training.

There will be a time of questions and answers at the end of the session which Chris will moderate. I will lead in the teaching time.

There is no cost to join us and no product pitches will be made. You will have an opportunity to give after the webinar to help offset the cost of the webinar service. To register for this webinar or to see more details, visit http://www.evangelismcoach.org/2009/webinar-on-prayerwalking-for-community-outreach/

I hope you will join us for this training. If things go well, I may start offering free webinars through our ministry.

Praying for the Lost by Name - Part 2 of 2

Question: Is it more important for believers to pray to keep Christians out of heaven or lost persons out of hell?

I'm being a little sarcastic here to prove a point. So much of our praying in church today is focused on the physical and temporal needs of people. If people are healed, if they are provided for, if their temporal needs are met while their greatest need - salvation - is neglected, then what profit is our praying to them?

Paul said of Israel in Romans 10:1 ESV , "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." He was so burdened for their salvation that he said, "...I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." "Romans 9:3 ESV"

That is a heavy burden.

Would you be willing, if it were possible, to forsake your own salvation in order to see others saved? In case you were wondering, my answer to that question is: no comment.

We should be burdened for the salvation of people. This is especially true when you consider their spiritual condition apart from Christ. The bible says that people apart from Christ are...

• Matthew 15:24 – LOST.
• 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4 – BLIND.
• 2nd Timothy 2:25-26 - BOUND.
• John 3:18 - CONDEMNED.
• John 3:36 - DESTINED FOR HELL.
• John 6:44 - HELPLESS.
• Ephesians 2:12 - WITHOUT HOPE.
  

I would encourage you to get your Bible read each of the passages from the list above and meditate on them.

Here are a few ways that you can start a ministry of praying for the lost in your church...

Begin an Operation Celebration ministry in your church. (This is also known as Operation Andrew.) This is a list praying method. You begin praying for lost people by name on a daily basis. Download the training manual and the Operation Celebration brochure from our website. It is free.

Fishbowl Fishing - During prayer meeting, have people write the names of their lost friends and relatives on slips of paper. Collect them in a fishbowl and place them on the altar. During each prayer meeting, have people take a slip from the fishbowl and pray for that person(s) by name. Return the names to the bowl and keep praying for them at every prayer meeting until the person comes to faith in Christ.

Prayer Triplets - This is a variation of the list praying method. Find three people to partner with. Each person identifies three people that need Christ and begin praying for them by name as a group. If possible, find a time to meet together each week for prayer.

Prayerwalking - Prayer walk your neighborhood specifically to pray for the salvation of lost neighbors. If you don't know your neighbors by name, collect their addresses and use a service like www.411.com to do reverse address look ups. For the most part, it should give you the names of the people in your neighborhood. (For those living in the USA)

I would love to hear your suggestions on how to pray for the lost by name. You can list them in the comments section. Most importantly, pray for people who need Jesus as part of your daily walk with Christ. J. Sidlow Baxter said, "...men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons - but they are helpless against our prayers."

Divine Opportunities

I’m back. It has been an embarrassingly long absence to be sure. Having started the FriendFluence Blog with many good intentions, I found my laziness to be stronger than my creativity. I’ll try to do better…

Recently, my wife and I went out to eat after church and God provided us with a divine opportunity to lead our server to Christ. It was an amazing, God-orchestrated encounter.

The whole thing started when we asked the question, “can we pray for you today.” It is a practice that the Lord has led us to follow on many occasions in restaurants and many doors to witness have opened as a result of asking this simple question.

Our server, a young girl named Heather, nearly started crying when she thought about her answer. It was clear that she was overwhelmed at the thought of a stranger caring enough to ask a question like that. She wanted prayer for her mother but did not tell us any specifics as to why.

So we prayed for her.

When she returned with our drinks, I asked her if she was 50%, 75% or 100% sure she would go to heaven when she died. She responded by saying that she had no idea how to answer that question. She knew that there was some kind of divine standard, but did not know what that was.

Before the meal was finished – between her serving duties – she prayed to receive Christ. God was working in her heart to bring her to faith in Jesus.

Sharing the good news must first begin with caring. If people know that you care, they will listens to what you have to say. If we show genuine concern for those around us, God will give us divine opportunities to influence – even lead them – to faith in His Son.

So, take time to care if you dare!