This weekend was a historic moment as more than 1,300 churches throughout the world kicked off the One Prayer series together. Whether we were meeting in a movie theater or a middle school, a small structure or a multi-level worship center, a thriving metropolis or a quiet town, we were united with over 750,000 believers—despite differences in time zone, geography, language, and culture. From South Africa, Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United States, Britain, Egypt, Pakistan, and beyond, we all gathered in one name to worship our one and only God.
It’s awe-inspiring to expand our perspective and realize just how far-reaching the Church really is. Yet regardless of its magnitude, God is at work in each individual life and every church to accomplish amazing things.
Let’s take today and celebrate what God did in our churches this weekend as we joined together in One Prayer. Share your stories below! Be sure to tell us the name of your church and where you’re located.
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One Prayer Daily Devotional by Ed Young,Jr.: Senior Pastor, Fellowship Church
John 17:23 (NIV)
I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Jesus knew the opportunity that was before him. The time had come to sacrifice himself so that every single person on earth could have a chance for a relationship with God. But with every opportunity, there is opposition. And Jesus was about to face overwhelming opposition. He would be betrayed by one of his closest friends to a group of people who wanted him dead.
Yet, in the face of pressure so intense that it caused him to sweat drops of blood, Jesus prayed for all believers to be “brought to complete unity.” His hope in the time of his deepest pain was that each of us would join together as one.
This series is our chance to live out that prayer like no other time in history. And as we come together as one church to offer our One Prayer to the one true God, we have the chance to show the world the love that Jesus prayed about.
Rather than being the opposition for one another, we can unite to provide opportunities for hope and healing to so many people who are in desperate need of a relationship with Christ.
Ask yourself if you are a catalyst for opportunities in the life of your church and in the lives of those around you. Ask God to show you those opportunities to step up and step out. Because as you follow his lead, you will discover the true power of Jesus’ prayer in your life as well.
How can you reach out in love to your brothers and sisters in Christ and be a catalyst for unity?
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One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Chris Hodges, Senior Pastor, Church of the Highlands
Isaiah 58:6-9
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Do you know what is so amazing about this One Prayer campaign? We are all doing something together that has never been done before—more than 1,400 churches participating in a simultaneous message series. It’s going to be a great series but I have to admit, part of me loves One Prayer just because I like the challenge of breaking new ground.
If you like the challenge too, here’s another challenge for you—and for many of you, this is something that you’ve never done before. Fasting. That’s right. Prayer coupled with fasting is absolutely one of the most powerful tools available to the believer—and for the most part is a lost discipline in the church. In fact, most Christians have never even heard about fasting or attempted to fast.
For me, fasting and prayer is the best way to hear the voice of God and tap into His power. Do I like to fast? No, I hate it. Because I hate being hungry. I’m from Louisiana. I consider eating one of my spiritual gifts. But I love the intimacy with God that it facilitates —and I love the results.
The question is, “how do you fast?” Isaiah 58 makes it clear that fasting is more than just starving yourself. True fasting is about denying your fleshly desires (not just food) so that your spirit man can come alive. When that happens, you’ll touch the heart of God and develop a burden for others.
Go ahead—take the challenge!
Check out these great fasting resources:
How to Fast
7 Steps to Successful Fasting and Prayer
Jentezen Franklin’s Fasting Resources
Please tell us if you are fasting with us. Feel free to ask any questions about fasting.
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During the four weeks of One Prayer, we’re setting aside each Tuesday as a time to fast together. This week we’re going to concentrate our prayers on the most important experience that can occur in an individual’s life—salvation.
As you fast and pray, ask God for opportunities to share Christ with those who don’t know him. Consider inviting someone to church with you this weekend.
Please tell us who you are praying for to know Christ (first name only). As you read the comments, please pray by name for people on this list. We can’t wait to hear the stories about what God does!
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One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Wayne Cordeiro
Senior Pastor, New Hope Christian Fellowship
All That Matters
Psalm 133:1 (NIV)
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
During the span of my 34 years in ministry, I have had the honor of sitting with many in their final hours. As the curtains draw their brief lives to a close, nothing except the vital remains. And each time, without fail, everything else pales in comparison to their desire for healthy relationships.
In the end, our vertical relationship with Christ and our horizontal relationships with people will be all that matters.
Sometimes we don’t recognize what’s most eternal until we are face to face with it. But why wait?
Jesus reminded us that the greatest commandment in Mark 12:30 is to love God with all we’ve got, and then do the same with those around us. He then concludes with these words: “There is no greater commandment…”
Living in unity…
It doesn’t mean we always agree. It does mean, however, that we always support. We always speak well of. We always love, and we always stay on the same team. We’re one body.
My heart doesn’t do what my liver does. Nor do my kidneys do what my lungs do. They can’t really get together and just chill. They don’t compete. They don’t try to be like each other. Instead, “unity” in my body is defined by each part doing what it is assigned to do to the best of its ability, and the other parts?
They cheer and support!
When God sees that happening in His family, He leans over the banister of heaven, and with a sigh of delight, says, “It just doesn’t get any better!”
What can you do today that will promote unity with your brothers and sisters in Christ?
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How incredible is it that we can speak directly to God?! Prayer shouldn’t feel like an obligation or something to check off the list each day—it’s a special privilege to connect with our Creator. We can come as we are and talk openly and frankly about anything in our lives.
There is great power in prayer. And as the One Prayer community prays together during this series, we know God is going to do amazing things. Today, let’s pray for each other. Add a quick prayer request below to let us know how we can pray for you. Then, take a few minutes to pray for others who’ve posted, perhaps adding a comment to show your support. And by all means, come back and let us know when God answers your prayer so we can celebrate with you!
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Church leaders have submitted a total of 64 different messages during the weeks leading up to One Prayer. Each talk answers the following question: “If God would answer ‘one prayer’ for the church at large, what would you pray?” These pastors have delivered some very creative messages, and they’ve asked God to make us…one…generous…dreamers…dangerous…irresistible, and more. Take the time to join in these prayers with your church each week.
But now it’s your turn. If you could ask God to answer One Prayer for the church, what would it be?
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One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Perry Noble, Senior Pastor, NewSpring Church
Matthew 21:21-22 (NIV)
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
If God is huge—and we say and sing that He is—then why do we struggle with doubt?
I remember when we were six months into NewSpring Church and—WHAM—a financial crisis hit us out of the blue…seriously, we NEVER saw it coming.
So, I did what any pastor would do…I freaked out. I allowed the enemy to surface feelings of insecurity and unbelief—and for a while I felt like I was going to be completely crushed by the pressure I was feeling.
Then it hit me—why not pray about this? After all, Jesus did say it is HIS church!
So, I called the staff together and asked them to pray that the next month (July) would be the best month of giving our church had ever had. (July usually stinks for most churches.) And we didn’t throw around wimpy prayers—WE PRAYED, believing God was going to do incredible things.
And He did—seriously, that next month our offerings were doubled from the previous month. There is no explanation…attendance didn’t increase, no one hit the lottery…it was just the result of a few people refusing to believe that God was going to allow the church to go under financially…and so we BEGGED God to do the impossible.
What “impossible” thing are you begging God for?
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Yesterday we dedicated our One Prayer focus to praying for each other as individuals. Today, let’s continue the dialogue by posting short prayer requests for our churches. How can we pray specifically for your church as you participate in the One Prayer series? While you’re here, pause for a few moments and lift up the other churches in prayer. Then be sure to check back on Monday and share what God did in your church this weekend!
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One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Jason Boucher, Lead Pastor, Lifecentre
Every story starts the same, as a blank page.
Imagine the opposite. You are given a series of jumbled words on a page and then instructed to organize these words to write your story.
Which task would you prefer?
Blank page or jumbled words?
Acts 2:42 (NIV) says…
They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
While there are many words that we could highlight from this text, ones with equally profound meaning, there are three “key words” that are essential for the rest of the words to have their full effect.
“They devoted themselves.”
Central to the word devoted is this word vow.
As a minister I see many couples profess vows one to another during the marriage ceremony. What makes this moment beautiful is the depth to which these vows are expressed wholly and freely. One can be forced into a marriage, but no one can be forced to love. That is something that one must make the choice to give.
Just as in any relationship, the same is true in your life with God.
None of us come to God as a blank page. Rather, if we were totally honest, we resemble those jumbled words on a page. This one truth I know – all of us hunger for God to write a story with our lives that is a page-turner.
While I don’t know what the next chapter of your life will look like, what I do know is that if we devote ourselves to God wholly and freely, we will also see a demonstration of God in us and through us equal to what was experienced in the Acts 2 church.
Demonstration is God’s part, devotion is ours. Lord…..make us wholly and freely…..devoted.
Many of us have been challenged through One Prayer to be more devoted to God through fasting and prayer. What has your experience been like? What have you learned that you can share with the rest of the One Prayer community?
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Daily Devotional by Gary Lamb
One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Gary Lamb, Lead Pastor, Revolution Church
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
I love this verse from Paul! It is so rich in context that there is no way to cover all my thoughts in one short devotion and come anywhere close to doing it justice. Since we are a part of this unbelievable thing called One Prayer, let’s focus on the last part of the verse.
Paul encourages us to be faithful in prayer. Sounds like a pretty simple principle, but I’ve got to be honest and say for the longest time this was hard for me. In my Christian walk, faithfulness in prayer was one of the hardest disciplines to master because I had such a false idea of what prayer truly was.
I thought prayer was something you could only do in a quiet place, down on my knees, head bowed, and talking in King James English. However, this is actually the type of prayer that Jesus teaches against. The mindset I had towards prayer was turning prayer into some religious activity instead of something that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Prayer is simply an outflow of relationship. Every relationship involves communication and prayer is the way we communicate with God. This simple understanding changed my prayer life. The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing, we are to be in constant communication with God at all times. Prayer doesn’t end because we say Amen.
We are to be in a constant attitude of prayer. Faithfulness in prayer comes when we realize we can communicate with God at anytime, anyplace, about anything. As thoughts pop in our heads, we have a direct line to God to talk about those things. God is not interested in the length of our prayers, the elegant language, or what we are doing when we are praying. He is simply interested in our faithfulness to communicate with Him.
During One Prayer, make it a point to start the discipline of being faithful in prayer. It isn’t how much or how long you pray, it is just the discipline of being faithful when the Holy Sprit lays something on your heart to communicate with God about it.
Think for a few minutes about circumstances you could begin lifting up in prayer. Share your ideas below!
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