(Sam Tillery)
Welcome to City Reach Prayer. We are here today to pray into the City Kids Festival that will be taking place here at Julliard Park on August 25.
I am going to ask that we get into groups of 3 or 4 people and we will take various spots around the park and pray and see what God may be speaking to us in regards to that day.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
I would like to hear from any of you what God may have been speaking to you and/or what you were praying for.
(Comments)
What we did is we declared that this would be Holy ground, speaking into it and I prayed that as Jesus said that the children should not be hindered to come to Him and that the kingdom of God belonged to such as these. We declared that there would be no hinderances in the children being able to come.
We declared cleansing over this place, because in the past this park has had a reputation for drug dealing, homelessness and violence, so we spoke cleansing over this area.
We prayed that the children would make the connection between the old life and the new life as they cross over this bridge here after hearing the gospel and realize that all the fun, love and gifts that they receive would be directly connected to the gift of life through Jesus Christ.
(Sam Tillery)
Let’s take a moment to pray together about the follow up for all that will take place here. Many hundreds will come to Christ, but the tendency of the church is that we do not know how to disciple. Many will be Hispanic and we need God to strengthen the Hispanic churches as well as others, but let’s just take a moment and pray into this whole realm of not only what happens throughout the day, but how do we engage in discipling and nurturing of those who have come into the kingdom and those who exposed to Christ in a new way.
(Prayer)
Lord, we pray that as opportunities present themselves that your ambassadors would stand in the gap and make those bridges possible, that we would not leave these babies in the street to starve, but that we would provide milk to grow until they are able to eat meat and eat the deeper things of the Lord. We pray that they would be nourished to the point to where they could go out and do the same so that your kingdom would grow.
Father, we pray that you would give the church wisdom in networking, linking the body of Christ together, especially between the Hispanic churches and others so that we can work together and be ready and able to meet the needs and nobody will be left. May the body work together and better know who we each are so that we can effectively bring in the harvest.
Lord we pray for a spirit of hospitality in our churches. Folks that might be afraid to walk into the doors of a church, would feel welcome and loved. We pray that we would have a spirit of perseverance, that we would stick it out and follow through, not just through a phone call, but that we would be hungry to build relationships with people who have said, “I want to be a part of the family of God.” So, Lord we just pray that you would give us wisdom and discernment and perseverance and hospitality. Those are things that we can’t manufacture, so Lord we need you to give us your spirit. Lord, fill us with your spirit that we might bring glory to your name.
Lord, help us to reach out to all here, not just to those who are like us. Help us to overcome all fear and apprehension in reaching out and that we would gather in those from all nations, tribes and tongues.
We know that the enemy wants nothing to be working here and so we pray that you Lord would tear down any darkness and spiritual attacks to keep people from believing and walking in all that God is doing and saying here that day.
We pray for the parents of the children, that as your presence is here they would have a desire themselves for you and that they would desire for their children to come to you and also to church. We pray that they could come together and that there would be a longing together. We pray that they would make connections and that they would not be uncomfortable or suspicious about the church having any wrong motives, but that it would be seen in the whole truth and that the love of Christ would be received.
Father, we hold up the Redwood Gospel Mission to you. We want to hold up Jeff and Kathy Gilman to you as your servants and the whole board at the Redwood Gospel Mission, would be guarded in Christ Jesus. All of the planning and the faith that has been stepped out for this, the prayers that have come in, the workers that would come and be, Lord, that this whole event has a testimony to Jesus Christ. May it be seen that this is a righteous event, an event bathed in prayer and faith. God, we lift this up to you as a testimony. Lord, we know that people will come for the fun and games, but we pray that they would receive you Lord, and that all that come would see the Son lifted up and that you would draw men, women and children in this place to your kingdom.
(Sam Tillery)
We are going to shift gears here a little bit. One of the important parts of the body that seems to be consistently missing here at City Reach Prayer is young people, so your assignment is to pray and invite a young person to the next City Reach Prayer. Pray that God would lead them and that the Lord might put them in front of you. The youth is an important part of the expression that we need to have and they will pray in a ferver that we need and will work together.
(Prayer)
Lord, we pray that this would be a gate for you to gather the generations together and your body together in this city, that you Lord would draw people groups together as you are a God of the nations. Father, we pray that you would be invited to enter into this city through this event and the uniting of your body here. Bridge generations and nations. Gather the Hispanic congregations together with us. Father, we just give this event to You.
(Jeff Gilman)
Kathy has some testimonies in regards to families and different nations from City Kids last year.
(Kathy Gilman)
After sharing the Gospel to the kids over at the Gospel Tent and it came time to ask if there was anyone who wanted to receive Jesus, one of the parents raised their hands and said, “Is this only for the children?” I quickly told them that it was for them too if they were wanting to that it is for them too. So, the Lord is pulling in any whom He is drawing and from all ages. Also, there was an Afghanistani family that came and they wanted to receive some information in regards to church and a Bible and they were a part of the Santa Rosa Islamic church they said. They are open to receiving Jesus Christ, but there is no connection with the body of Christ, so it’s just this hold and we need that spirit broken.
I took three Peruvian women down to the Consulate last week and one of them was saying that when she was younger and her children were being exposed to some evangelicals that she thought that all of the Evangelicals were demon possessed people and she didn’t want them to have any exposure and pull them away from the faith and that she had to protect them from these Evangelicals, so there is that sense of some kind of demonic presence with us from some of the folks that we would encounter. So, just be aware of the spiritual warfare that is going on and that through the power of God, it will be broken.
(Jeff Gilman)
We need to pray for Sam, because he hasn’t been feeling well and he is going to be having to go to San Francisco for surgery for his heart. We don’t know if they are going to put in a shunt of some sort or what he may be needing, but we need to stop what we are doing and pray for him.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
I do not expect the Christian life to be easy, but I would like it to be effective. I have been so blessed to not have many physical dilemnas, so I am thankful. I am so excited and thrilled about what God is doing and one of the things that excites me and is history in the making. We have been praying for a lot of years together as pastors and we moved into many different venues, the marketplace, a ministry called HINGE, but this coming Wednesday the pastors are going to be gathering together to study the Bible, where we will coming together and studying verse by verse and word by word, the book of Ephesians. That is so awesome as we will be blending so many different schools of theology and just being in the Word together. Please invite all of the pastors and their associates, at 7 am at City Life Fellowship.
This is an answer to prayer and will usher in what has been on my heart for many years, which is a school of ministry and Biblical Studies of the unity of the Body of Christ in this reason, but it has got to start with leaders seeing the value of intermingling together and find a sense of trust and value in that. I believe that this will be a catalyst to unlock a whole lot more of discipleship with a broader scope of the Body of Christ having a greater balance of discipleship throughout the Body of Christ. This is a reality that will begin this Wednesday, so let’s take a moment to pray into this for protection and that we really would hear from the Lord together and what that represents.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
Please check the website, www.unitedprayer.org for the next City Reach Prayer location and don’t forget to invite a young person to come with you.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
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