Rejoicing in Overflow
The following is a suggested prayer structure. Each section should take approximately 10 minutes. However, be flexible, and enjoy going off-piste by adding any prayer points you would like! Spend longer on the sections that are meaningful for you, and feel free to leave out others as time permits. Whatever you do, however, please pray – and in particular pray through today’s specific prayer points so we seek God’s Kingdom with others as a united, praying church.
Praise and Worship
Spend some time praising God. Use songs, listen to music, speak out words of praise. You can find some worship songs to sing, or reflect upon by clicking here.
Pray in tongues
If you have the gift of tongues, use this now and allow the Holy Spirit to build you up (1 Corinthians 14:4). If you have never spoken in tongues, you can spend time asking the Holy Spirit to receive this specific gift, or alternatively seek God’s blessing for your time of prayer. If you have the gift of tongues, pray for a full 10 minutes, and consider the following: what has changed in my thinking, how have my emotions shifted, what do I want to pray for now that may be different from, how has my view of Jesus changed?
Waiting on the Lord
Take some time to still your thoughts and sit before the Lord in silence. Ask him to reveal to you anything that is coming between you and Him. Confess anything that comes to mind. This will enable you to pray without anything coming between you and God. If God highlights anyone He wants you to forgive, muster up the courage and strength to forgive them from your heart (Mark 11:25).
Reading and Praying Scripture
Read today’s passage. What is God showing you or talking to you about from that passage: for instance, what strikes you as unusual, interesting, provocative, or puzzling? Ask God and pray about those things.
Matthew 19:13-14 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
How fascinating to see the contrast between the priorities of Jesus and those of his disciples. Jesus loves the vulnerable, such as children, and His desire is to seek and impart blessing to them. It has been said that ‘there’s no such thing as a Junior Holy Spirit.’ Children receive the full package, the same as everyone else, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That’s why God’s kingdom is expressed and made manifest through them. In fact, we often experience more of the character and nature of Jesus through our children. For example, Charlie shared a few Sundays ago about her son who was struck with a violent vomiting bug. Charlie told her son to take authority and command the sickness to go. When he did, he recovered miraculously – and rapidly!
When we run our youth and children’s activities, we are following Jesus’ example of love, respect and blessing. That’s why we have a big heart for our youth and children’s work at King’s. In fact, some church statisticians note that around 90% of salvations occur in people under the age of 18. Our youth and children’s works are major areas of mission for the Church. We need to pray, to see God’s kingdom made manifest through these vital ministries.
Intercession
For our youth (11-18 years old), let’s pray for
- New leaders to be inspired and released to guide our young people into a lifelong love and passion for the Bible
- Strong friendships to develop between the young people
- Those on the fringe to be drawn into the church community
- A powerful move of the Holy Spirit amongst both our youth, and the youth leaders. Supernatural gifts such as prophecy, tongues, healings, generosity to be unleashed in our youth and youth leaders
- A return of the young people who only attend infrequently or who have fallen away since the imposition of lockdowns
- Spirit-filled, Bible-loving leaders to emerge from our young people
For our children (from birth to 11 years old), let’s pray for
- King’s Kids’ BLESS adventures (where they go out and show the love of Jesus to our community) would be incredibly fruitful
- Children to have wisdom, boldness and insight in their prayers
- Great fruit from the current teaching series
- For there to be a culture of radical acceptance within King’s Kids and a culture of welcome, both within interpersonal relationships and for those coming into the wider group
- A strong realisation and anticipation of the profoundly missional nature of the children’s work across the leadership and serving teams
- The team to experience the Holy Spirit’s energy, encouragement and fulfilment as they serve our children
- Our 10s to 11s, and that their transition into the youth would be managed well, and it would be a really positive experience for them
- Opportunities for our children to test out their gifts and talents, so they understand their purpose and their place within the broader church
Reflection
Write down anything that God has spoken to you. You can send in your reflections, thoughts, words of encouragement, prophetic words to office@kchw.co.uk.
