Saskatchewan House of Prayer

by Richard Long,

   The Lord has been raising up Houses of Prayer for government across the provinces.  One that we have seen develop quickly with a lot of divine favour is the one in Regina, SK.  We love what Patricia Fraser and Richard and Joanne Lepp and their whole team are doing.  For example if you go to their website you will see that they have identified 11 provincial gates which they pray through as a ministry. 

  If you are a resident of Saskatchewan we highly encourage you to connect with them and support their important ministry to the government of Premier Brad Wall.

  We have a picture plaque sitting on our office desk commemorating the Province of Saskatchewan which reminds us to pray for them.  If we didn’t, then one of our interns, Megan MacQuin would be on our case, since that is her homeland.

A.W. Tozer on “Thy Kingdom Come”

by Richard Long,

I started reading A.W. Tozer back in Bible College days. (Thirty years ago)  He is always challenging.  Here he is on the Lord’s Prayer…

How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” without ever realizing the spiritual implications of such intercession? 

What are we praying for?  Should we edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation?  “My kingdom go, Lord: Let Thy kingdom come!”  Certainly His kingdom can never be realized in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed.  It is when I resign, when I am no longer king of my domain, that Jesus Christ will become king of my life.

 

Technical Help for your Prayer Life

by Richard Long,

  Time to remind you about Reminders!  I have been recommending a free prayer reminder service for a couple of years now.  It’s called Echo Prayer and the basic idea is that they will send you emails according to how you have scheduled them, to remind you about important situations or people you are praying for.  You can randomize it or schedule it specifically.  I have mine set so they get sent to me in the morning.

  Now for some of you this will sound quite unspiritual.  You prefer spontaneous promptings or perhaps have a great memory.  Since I have passed the half century mark in the last year, I have found my memory needs some aids.  This is fun and efficient.

Check it out here.

Feeding the Hungry

by Richard Long,

   We have had an incredible group of volunteers feeding folks over the last few days here at NHOP.  Ruth Sowerby, her husband Harold (local pastors in Ottawa) and her band of kitchen and dining room helpers looked after 75-80 hungry leaders for the last 6 days.  The eaters were at first the worship team for the Watchmen Gathering and the dance troupe from Alliance Et Vie church.  The last couple of days it was the international guests who came from over a dozen nations to observe and debrief about the experience.

  They all were effusive in their praise for the beautiful presentation and the wonderful taste, quantity and variety of food on the menu.

   The real miracle is that so many meals could be provided out of our small kitchen.  We still have only a 4-burner stove and a couple of ovens.  We’ve begged and borrowed fridges and freezers that line the walls.  If you have ever been in our kitchen you know it really needs an overhaul.  Actually we are praying about how and when to do so.  We estimate that it will take at least $25,000.  Just another project that we get to watch the Lord provide the funds for and bless us and many others along the way.

Prayer Mentoring: The Gadite Track

by Richard Long,

  Some of the best training and mentoring for experienced intercessors is provided by Cityscape Prayer Ministries.  Although they are located in Vancouver, through their conference calls and the internet they are very capable of providing good first-hand relationships.

  Here at NHOP we partner very closely with Sara Maynard and her team.  If you have been to any of the National Schools of Intercession you will know that the teaching comes from leaders from both of our ministries. 

  Many intercessors have already been a part of the Gadite Track in the last couple of years.  Cityscape is taking applications for their next group.  You can read all about it online at their website.  Make sure you scroll down the page to see the details.

A Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing

A Four-Fold Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for
justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may
reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that
you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able,
with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you
and remain with you, this day and forevermore.
AMEN.

Open House this week

by Richard Long,

  With all the visitors in town who have come to attend The Promise Gathering, we knew we would have many people wanting to drop in on us.  So starting yesterday, we have been doing open houses each afternoon from 3-5 PM this week.  We love doing this.  Today we probably had a hundred visitors.  This means we get to see old friends and meet many new ones.  The kind of person who is drawn to a Watchmen for the Nation’s event is the exact profile of the type of person who tends to come to NHOP. 

  We also love telling the story about how the Lord provided our magnificent facility and to tell the story of how government is being affected by the prayers of average Canadians.  Well nobody that prays for Canada is average, but you know what I am saying.  We aren’t superstars.  God loves to use normal people to display his glory.

If you are in the area this week, we would love to have you drop by and share with us the faithfulness of the Lord.

Live Streaming from The Promise Gathering

by Richard Long,

  Tonight was the opening session for The Promise gathering hosted by Watchmen for the Nations here in Ottawa at the Lansdowne Civic Centre.  It began with a procession of the stones that had been originally been brought to Winnipeg 10 years ago.  It was symbolic of the theme of this week, which is Thankfulness for God’s Faithfulness.  There was as usual over an hour of exhuberant worship that ushered in the presence of the Lord.  It is very visual with dancers and flags and fine artists joining the large worship team.

The great news is that if you can’t be here you can still watch it online through live streaming.

The morning sessions begin at 9:30 and evenings at 6:30.

Here’s the webpage that gives you all the details.

Worship Leaders: Stephanie Mainville

by Richard Long,

  We have worship coming out our ears these days at the National House of Prayer.  More accurately, coming out our windows.  The worship teams that will be leading the Watchmen for the Nations event that starts tomorrow night have been staying at NHOP, practicing together and enjoying each other’s families.

  One of those worship leaders, who is here with her husband and 4 kids is award-winning singer and song-writer Stephanie Mainville.  Regulars at Watchmen events will immediately recognize her as the one who leads while playing her violin.  She and Kenn, her husband live on Darling’s Island in New Brunswick. 

  Stephanie’s first album entitled “Family” is a real taste of East Coast music with its uplifting tunes and lyrics.  The great news is that in September her second album “Out of Nowhere” will be released.  You can already listen to some samples of it on the ReverbNation website.

Her song “Wait” was the runner up for the Grand Prize this Spring  at the Canadian Radio Star competition as selected by the Songwriters Association of Canada.

We get to enjoy her music all week here in Ottawa along with many other worship leaders from across the nation.

The official website for Stephanie Mainville is here.

Soul Nourishment First – George Muller

Our good friend from the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP), Jill Weber, sent us this article a while back, about the practice of reading the Word before praying as described by George Muller.  It really is a powerful idea that perhaps many of you practice naturally, but just in case, let this be a great encouragement to you.

Soul Nourishment First – George Muller

It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.”

Read the rest of the article …