(Sam Tillery)
Welcome to City Reach Prayer. We will be doing some worship led by Pastor R.C. Carillo, but before we do that I am going to open us with a word of prayer.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
Father, we ask that you would guide and lead us in prayer tonight. Thank you that when we call upon your name, our whole community is impacted. We love you Lord and we want to pray according to what your heart is wanting us to pray. Amen.
Ok, well welcome. I want you to think of the impact that one individual can have on things and when you think of someone who has made a huge impact in our world, for good or bad, who comes to your mind?
Adolf Hitler. Yes, in fact the influence of this one man is still with us today. The impact of him still burdens and puts people in bondage as to that devastation.
What’s another name?
(Noelle Hostler)
Jesus.
(Sam Tillery)
Yes, that’s the one. Jesus. There is no other name like that name. He is why we are here tonight. What’s another name? Paul the Apostle. Gutenburg, that’s how we have the printed Bible. Martin Luther King Junior. Yes, all individuals who had a passion, dream, calling and a destiny. Pharoah.
As we look around here, we can see that we are a group made up of individuals and God has ordained us to make a great impact right here, right now where we are at. As we come together to intercede tonight and that will have a great impact. If you think that because there are not many of us here that we will not make a difference, you must know that it will make a difference. We may not always see it at the immediate moment, but it does impact. We must keep in mind that the natural realm in which we live, the things that we see, this earth and the things that are happening are a direct result of and a reflection of the spiritual. It simply is a manifestation of the condition of the spiritual realm.
There is a correlation, there is a connection, so in that there are clues for us and we are going to talk about some of them tonight and we are going to pray into them and we can tie into some of the past events and circumstances into the future. We as God’s people begin to walk in unity, that is having a significant impact in the spiritual realm and is beginning to effect the physical realm.
Last month at City Reach Prayer, I showed the Hope Works video; Darrel is the executive director and he is here tonight, but I kept thinking about the fact that the condition of gangs is a testimony of the condition spiritually of the church and that is changing in prayer. We the body are beginning to walk forward and to step into what we have stepped away from and that is mentoring. Remember, we prayed that God would open doors, and as we pray, that prayer must be coupled with actions that walk in the positive realm of what God intends. Does that make sense?
So, for example we are going to begin to see a greater acceleration of open doors in all of the areas, not just with gangs, as Hope Works is successful. As they step in with faith and into the lives of hard core individuals to love them and mentor them. There will be a battle, but we have won in Christ. So, as we pray about these things and then begin to walk in them, the physical walk of obedience impacts the spiritual realm and increases our authority when we speak into the heavenlies.
I want you to keep all of that in mind as I read through a few scriptures. I am going to read Colossians 2:15 which says this:
"Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Did you catch that? Having disarmed principalities and powers. We are talking about the demonic realms; the works of darkness have been disarmed by what? Yes, the Cross! What happened on the cross has disarmed them, so what’s up with the fact that there is so much fire coming at us? It is because we do not walk in authority to posess the land in the name of Christ. To go into the gangs and say, “No, you belong not to the works of darkness.”
Now one of the reasons that I want to get you to see that is, because when you pray, you will pray with a different tone. We are not here to pray that our church will have a sunny day for their picnic next weekend. This is to pray about the issues that are at the core and fiber at what keeps this community in bondage and our local churches and ministries in bondage.
In Ephesians chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, it was God’s intent that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished through Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s God’s intent that the church rise up as one.
You hear me say this all the time, that we are endeavoring to walk in answer to the prayer of Christ in John 17, that we would be one so that the world would believe. We are seeing that as we are walking as one in different realms, that there are people coming to believe, there are doors that are opening that were never opened before. Who is the church? It is born again believers. The body of Christ universal manifests itself in a local place as one body in Christ, yet diverse and different.
So, tonight is very important. It’s not how many hundreds are here, but what we each represent. We’ve got different cities, congregations and denominations in Christ, so you represent something which impacts the spiritual realm.
Keeping those thoughts in mind, we are familiar with the passage in 2 Chronicles 7:14, that states, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray,…” The fact that we have gathered here to pray, is an expression of humility and is a posture that is so essential to break down the walls of darkness. "...seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” Are Christians praying? How many righteous would have made a difference in Sodom and Gomorrah? In the case of Nineveh, my people was essentially one man - Jonah, right? In Elisha’s time it meant 7,000 who had not bowed to the god Baal. I don’t know what that number is, but it goes from one to hundreds or thousands, the point is, is that, “if my people.” If that one or two or three are right here we make a difference. Whoever God specifically calls and responds in obedience. You are here tonight and you are being obedient, and I wanted to make the connection that just your presence here tonight amongst all of the other options and all of the other distractions are here, has a huge impact in the spiritual realm.
The Nineviites were not really considered to be God’s people were they? Yet their repentance and their unity moved God to save their city. Their response unlocked something for God to move in their city. Your presence tonight continues to unlock things and as we speak things it begins to unlock things in the spiritual realm that impacts the physical realm and then as we walk through those, things begin to change. For example, Hope Works working with the gangs, that door opened and we walked on through it and things are beginning to happen supernaturally, more so than when we stay in our little fortresses and safe places and how we organize church, right? So, we are moving into these realms and when we pray, we are praying with a whole different tone and idea of these things.
Keep in mind that the history of a place…now keep track with me here, because this is what we call informed intercession, because we are going to get really specific in some areas that specifically relate to our own community, and so if you do not understand it and we just pop off with things that are not connected with a united force.
The history of a place effects its present inhabitants. What we are experiencing now in the negative sphere connects back to historical events or declarations or actions of those who have gone before us. When we understand some of these things, we begin to walk, pray and speak differently, therefore the healing of a person, city, a place, a nation or a church must be called to the healing of it’s history through the cleansing power of Christ.
Now, a little later on we are going to pray about the future of this school as it moves this next summer in July to what has been known as the Luther Burbank Center, but is now being called the Wells Fargo Center which even previously was a church known as Christian Life Center. My concern is that before we get to praying, the fact that God’s seems to be opening the doors for this Christian school to enter into and occupy a place that was committed to, built, prayed for and people sacrificed for its presence in the community to declare and live out the gospel, but it did it in independence, and there are things that happened. Before this school starts to step in…and this is not something that we start thinking about a couple days before it happens…We have to realize that when we pray in just a few moments about the fact of, “What are the situations historically, that as the school steps in, we don’t want them stepping in spiritually naked with no armor and we have not recognized that there are still things historically that God wants to bring forth and bring cleansing and wholeness.” As we walk back into and take possession of what is likely the Lord’s, that door is opening.
Now, some said that the Devil took it away. The Devil didn’t take anything away, the body of Christ gave that away to a disobedience, ignorance, pride and a variety of other things which we all are guilty of in various forms. We cannot go back and relive all of that stuff, but there is still some of those things. There are still issues of idolatry in our community and unresolved things that we need God’s wisdom on and the best way to do spiritual warfare is to overcome evil with good. So, it is a good thing that God has opened the door, but this is a thing that Santa Rosa Christian cannot do on it’s own financially or any other way. This is a huge venture and it’s not about them occupying the land, it’s about the body of Christ in unity walking in what God originally intended. It’s not building any one man’s or individuals or denominations kingdom, but the body of Christ.
I want us to move to prayer and I want you to break into groups of no more than 5 people and just speak to the Lord and ask Him to give you understanding. Don’t go declaring anything yet for such and such, but God is going to give you something in your groups of what to pray and someone from each group can report with everyone in a few moments as we begin to pray, so first we are seeking and listening. This is in regards to the whole City.
(Prayer in groups)
(Sam Tillery)
We will start with my group and we will share what some of the specific things where that came up during prayer.
1. This is not only about Santa Rosa Christian School, although they are moving in that direction, but it is something that will unlock a whole lot of other things in the community, but we believe that they must go in the opposite spirit. In order to assure that, we must identify what some of the things were that happened in the past between now and then so that S.R.C.S. can be led by Christ.
2. Independent vs. Unity – The key of unity would open up the storehouse.
3. Pride, independence and the worship of men must be addressed.
4. Warning of idolatry of the place. It was like the Tower of Babel so to speak.
5. Spirit of Mamon. Perhaps even those who invested in it may have invested in it for the wrong reasons, maybe for personal gain instead of investing in the kingdom of God. To let God arise in our unity and acts of kindness.
6. The Harvest – we all need to be individually prepared and ready in our hearts, so that no matter where we are congregating that we are a people that is ready for the harvest, equipped, available and not side-tracked by things that are not the main point.
7. The need for us to have God’s strategy for going in and not our own.
8. Be aware of mismanaging of what God has given. It is to be a center for the community with the Lord being the center of it. He is the vine, we are the branches. Stewardship- God owned everything and it is all His. Let God not be able to say of us that we have lost our first love. We must be enamered with God not just to have Him as one of the things that we are enamered with. We need brokenness in order for this to be operating out of God’s love toward us.
9. Idolatry of the good life of the wine country. We are to make it a temple of the kingdom of God.
10. We ought to advance in on evil instead of retreating because of evil.
Sam Tillery)
Now that we have some direction as to how to pray, we really need to walk in this and how to possess that property and to possess it in unity. There are others who will step up to the plate for it to be what God is calling it to be. If it is going to be the Kingdom, we occupy it with God’s purposes.
Let me share a verse and then we will take these to prayer.
1 John 1:7 says this, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” Did you catch that? If you want unity then you need to walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.
Somehow we have not been walking in the light, we have been walking in some of these other things, therefore we don’t have fellowship. When we walk in pride, independence or any of those other things, we don’t have fellowship. Who is our provider? He is our provider, not mammon. It is going to take a divine intervention of God for this to happen and for us to begin to walk down this road together. The rest of the Christian community is clueless about what we are talking about here. Most of the churches that you are in are clueless and could probably care less whether a Christian school goes in the Luther Burbank Center or not and don’t realize that the historical issues are directly impacting the bondage that we are in as local churches.
If you are simply a selfish Christian and you're concerned only about your local church, then this whole move of the school does impact us, and therefore you should be concerned or aware and interested. So, there is a sense of awareness that needs to be awakened that we move as a community in this direction for the success of one another and for Christian education. This will unlock Christian education for the individual and independent schools or the church schools.
Now, there are elements of a positive way of us walking not in competition, but in blessing one another, which I believe sets the stage for us to even begin to see anything happen about this. There are already things in motion through the prayer that we have had for years, which has set the stage for us to do. I would be fearful in making some of these moves myself, if we didn’t already have some of the evidences that we have.
The fact that we are already starting to walk in unity and being inter-dependent. The fact that this group has been meeting for 8 years is evidence. The fact that we are still small, some may think that it has failed, but remember what I said before, it is about representation and faithfulness. It only takes one person to make a huge impact on the vast majority, just like we talked about at the beginning of this meeting.
Let’s go ahead and each person in your groups are going to key off of one or two particular things that stood out to you and pray into that. You're not attacking anything or going after the demonic realm, that is very foolish if you don’t have your ducks in line. We don’t have enough unity to go after principalities and powers in this realm. They have been kicking us around like a little ball for a lot of years, so what we are doing is saying, “God, give us wisdom.”
When you pray in the opposite spirit, you confess your weakness and sin and then you pray in the virtues and the fruit.
Your prayers need to be short and to the point, because you are praying as group.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
We want tonight to pray specifically for Santa Rosa Christian School and where they are and how God wants to prepare them for His purposes. It’s not about the move, it’s about who they are and the location does have something to do with the call that they are venturing into. So, are you ready Harry?
Ok, first we want to show you a short video on the school and give you a sense of what it’s like and then we will move into prayer.
(Harry Skandera)
As I am getting this ready here, I just want to point something out. We have been meeting for City Reach Prayer now for about 8 years and this is the first time in the history of our meeting together that there are more men than women. It is very rare that there are more men than women at a prayer meeting and I just think that this is awesome.
We really appreciate all of you coming out here tonight and I know that about a year ago we gathered in one of these other rooms here at the school and prayed with City Reach Prayer. We didn’t have any deals or offers on the property at that time and wasn’t sure where we would be going, but in the meantime someone had come to us and made an offer that we couldn’t refuse and we just felt really blessed, so that leads to this recent endeavor…
(Video)
(Harry Skandera)
We are here to pray and we ask that you would join with us in prayer. Of course, there are many things that we are in prayer about, but really there are three main things that we would like to focus in on tonight.
The first thing is that, you know in many ways we represent the body of Christ historically. Slander and gossip has been a major problem at this school and around this school in the church community. Well, we decided in prayer to take the frontal assault on this issue and it has not been easy. It is one thing to refrain from saying bad things and another thing to actually speak life and particularly when others are not speaking life to or about you. We really believe that the Lord is helping us in this, but we happen to have a few students here tonight and I am going to ask them if they would come up here. I am going to ask those of you who feel moved and led to pray for our student body, as they are represented by these three students and that there would be an increased release in speaking life.
(Prayer)
 Lord, we lift up these young people to you and that they would increase in intimacy with you. I pray that they would never forget their first love. I pray that they would be infectious and know that you Lord will never leave them or forsake them and that they would intimately know your love.
 We pray that there would be an impartation of your spirit to this generation that would be so impacting that the words that they speak would indeed be a light and a blessing and that there would just be an outpouring of your spirit in this generation. I pray that it would be manifested in these three young ones and that they would impact all that they touch.
We pray that as they submit themselves wholeheartedly to you that they would speak by your spirit and that they would give life to those around them.
Father, we thank you for the sound of your voice coming from them. We pray that they would be the called out of the called out. That life would be spoken through them and let the sounds of heaven come from them.
We pray for your grace to be on these children to be longsuffering and gracious when hard things are thrown at them, but that they would react in the opposite spirit and bless those around them.
Teach us Father how to put them on our shoulders that we might launch them forward.
We pray for the relationships between the grades Kindergarten through twelfth grade, Father that the younger ones would look up to the older ones and that the older ones would cherish the younger and be role models.
Father, we ask for your forgiveness for the bad example that we have set in the way that we devour one another and we pray that you would just baptize this generation in your love and that they would pour out with your love to this generation.
Father, we pray that you would give these kids the tongue and a ear of a disciple and that they would sound like you, Lord. Make them a model community of love.
(Harry Skandera)
Thank you for your prayers.
We want to be an instrument of reconciliation as a school and I believe that we are called to be that, because that is one of the ministries that we have been given as Christians, that is the ministry of reconciliation. We remind the kids all of the time that this is Santa Rosa Christian School and we represent Christ, because of that this ministry naturally is dealing with a lot of warfare and the physical and emotional impact that it has on our staff is being felt by us all. I would like for Lawrence Lehr to come up here and have a seat. Our accountant has just been diagnosed with cancer and a couple of our faculty members are out sick right now and a lot of that kind of stuff. We need prayer, not just healing prayer, but defensive prayer. This is a big bridge in a wide river.
Go ahead and pray as you're led, you don’t have to take turns.
(Prayer)
 
(Prophetic word) (Isaiah 62:10-12)
Open the gates, prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway. Take out the stone. Lift up a banner for the people. Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world, say to the daughter of Zion, Say to Santa Rosa Christian School, “Surely your salvation is coming, behold his reward is with him and his work is before Him, and they shall call them the Holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. And you shall be called, ‘Sought out’, a city not forsaken.”
Hallelujah, let the blessing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob be upon you. Amen.
(Harry Skandera)
This is a place of teaching. I believe that as you pray, you know, sometimes the Lord will raise up a sign within our midst, I believe that about prophetic signs as well. I believe that what we are going through is prophetic of what the entire body of Christ is experiencing too.
(Greg)
I believe that the land where you are going has been a cursed land by the body and it has been thought of as forsaken, but He has married that land and He is sending you in betrothed of Him to Beulah, married. He has given you that land as a wedding gift. That He has married to that place and it is not forsaken.
(Harry Skandera)
There are those who are recognized and commissioned as watchmen for their congregation and community. We want you to witness the commissioning of our first husband and wife intercessors for Santa Rosa Christian. We have had people that have served as intercessors prior, but never have we officially commissioned them. I want to recognize their prayer for sure, Jan and LaeLonie have prayed faithfully and I have often joined them. We have really wanted to have some people who would take up the burden of intercession of the commissioning of being a watchmen for the school and a standing in the gap for a period of time. I would like if Kate and Jan Candersluis and others from the school here to come and stand around them so that we may pray for and commission them.
 
(Prayer/Commissioning)
(Sam Tillery)
Please continue to check the website which is actually under construction right now. It will be given a completely different look. We have also in the process of changing our name to “Together in Christ” and that speaks to what we are about and you can check out togetherinchrist.net and we do not have the next City Reach Prayer location nailed down, so you’ll have to check the website for the December location.
(Singing of the Santa Rosa Christian School theme song, “Let it be said of us…”)
Lyrics:
Let it be said of us, of the ones we leave behind.
Let it be said of us, that we live to be a blessing for life.
Let it be said of us, that we live to reach the dying.
Let it be said of us, by the fruit we leave behind.
Let it be said of us, that our legacy is blessing for life.
This day, you set life, you set death right before us.
Every blessing and curse is a choice now and we will choose to be a blessing for life.
Let it be said of us, that our hearts belong to Jesus.
Let it be said of us, that we spoke the words of life.
Let is be said of us, that our heritage is blessing for life.
Blessings and curses are choices,
Because Blessings and curses are choices.
Will we build up or tear down, the moment of truth is now!
We will choose to be a blessing for life…
For your kingdom, for our children, for the sake of every nation.
(Sam Tillery)
We thank you all again for coming.
If you are wondering how you can maybe get more involved, is to influence your pastor and have us come to your church and maybe Darrel from Hope Works could come and share with your congregation how they can get involved in helping out with this gang outreach as a community.
Over the next few weeks I am going to be spending some time with my parents, they are beginning to show their age. When you see the sun, that is a trigger to pray for Sam, because my parents live in Hawaii, so I’ll be with them there. Hopefully I will be in the water a little bit too.
Honestly, I do need your prayers, I have felt a little worn out, dry and spent and I need to hear from the Lord for myself as well. Please pray that I rest every time you see the son or water.
God bless you all.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document. |
