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4.Agreement to not Get Offended with Styles:

These days, whether it’s a church prayer meeting or an inter-faith gathering, there are always people coming with different backgrounds on prayer and experiences.

Some people will pray in tongues, some will not. Some will stand, some will sit. Some will be loud, others will be silent. Some people get scriptures, some people get pictures - some people get songs.

It’s all important – and alright if it’s all different.

Don’t try and make everyone ‘hear’ from God the same way. Acknowledge that we’re all gifted differently and this is a time of blending those gifts together to work for the greater good of the The Body. Before a prayer group even starts, everyone must agree that they will not be intimidated by different styles or judge one another. We agree ahead of time that we are there IN UNITY to pray together for a specific need, and we release everyone to pray however they are comfortable.

Now, having said that, I must also remind us that we are to be preferring one another. That means that if someone’s style is very loud and dominating, they need to, out of love for one another be willing to ‘dial it down’ a bit, so that their style doesn’t dominate the flow in the room or intimidate others. In no way does that mean they should not pray, but we agree to be sensitive to one another, and not demand our own way! Look for ways to flow together in the Spirit – to find ways to be ‘one voice’. Remember that being united doesn’t mean all being the same – but it does mean flowing with one heart, one voice and in the same direction.

5. Be God focused

Be careful, when engaging in spiritual warfare in a prayer group that you do not become ‘enemy focused’, instead of God focused. By this we mean, do not engage your prayer group into focusing and speaking to the enemy and his forces, instead of God and His might!

Many prayer groups have been exhausted taking on battles that the Lord has told us are His. If a person in the group is continually calling down Satan, telling him this and that – the group needs to discern whether that is fitting in with their mandate, and IF that type of prayer is leaving a sense of refreshing or exhaustion.

Prayer that leaves a group feeling exhausted or defiled in any way, needs to be looked at again. Remember we call God down into the battle, call on Him to release His hosts to fight, and remind Him where the enemy is! He takes care of the rest! Speaking too much in a prayer meeting directly to the enemy or his demons, can often cause problems in that can eventually hurt the health, strength and unity in the group. ( We never want it said that we spent more time addressing the enemy, than we did talking to God!!)

If you need examples or teachings on this, there is a great teaching called “Warfare Praying in Psalms”. This teaching gives the examples that out of (approx.) 850 verses in Psalms that directly or indirectly deal with warfare, only 6 times does David rebuke the enemy for what he’s doing and only 3 times does David directly address the enemy. Yet 227 x’s he tells God where the enemy is, and calls God down into that! God does the battle. He calls God into the battle 75x’s more often, than he ever directly addressed the enemy himself. Often our prayer groups can get this statistic the other way around. We need to be alert to the enemy drawing us into battles that we should be calling God down into!

6. Be Willing to Learn

No one person knows everything about prayer. Be willing to learn from each other. Be willing to be instructed by those in the group, or by bringing people into the group. Be willing to share information, but give people the right to not always ‘get’ what you get out of book, or a teaching series. Be willing to develop your intercessory gifting – don’t get locked into thinking that your way of praying is the ONLY way.

More points to follow...but don't worry, I'm just about done now! If you have any comments or questions about points 1 - 6 that I've shared thus far - let me know!

Guidelines that have Worked for us.....

One of the most exciting sentences I have ever heard is “ Let’s get together and pray!” Those words usually herald the beginning of a prayer group – a gathering of prayer warriors& intercessors – who are hearing the Spirit call them to pray.

When the Spirit of God puts out the call to gather to pray, it usually means He has something that He wants done, something that He wants to release – answers that He wants us to ask for! It’s an exciting time – it’s also a time of learning, and time of work. A good prayer group, a strong prayer group, is one that will go the distance. A good prayer group takes work and boundaries.

Below are listed some things that our Abbotsford City Prayer Group has learned over the years – things the Lord has taught us along the way, that have enabled us to last 15 years and still going strong. Please understand that none of this is hard and fast – it is simply what we have learned. You still must determined what the Lord is saying to you and your group. There are 9 main points that we've developed over the years - here are the first three points. I'll list the others in a later post.

1. What is Your Mandate?

The first thing any group has to discern is : WHY are we meeting to pray? What has God called you together for? This question can be better understood in one word : mandate.

Many groups do not discern what they have been gathered to pray about, and so, each prayer meeting can become a ‘free for all’. By that I mean, the strongest agenda’s, or the strongest need or personality, will control the way the meeting goes, and what is prayed about.

For instance: if you are called to pray for your church – that entails a lot of territory. You need to ( each meeting) ask the Lord what area of the church He is wanting you to pray into that week – what area does He feel needs to be covered. You may find yourself praying for youth, the children, finances, the pastors, worship ( & all those involved), marriages, the singles, upcoming outreaches or events the church is participating in, families etc. The list of needs that prayer people can cover, as they pray for their church is HUGE! If you do not establish that Praying for the Church, is the main call of the prayer group, you can get pulled into ministering to personal needs, or praying for national crises, or praying for nations, etc. Although they are all good causes and need prayer, IF you spend your time all your praying for those issues, at the end of your prayer time, WHO has prayed for the church? That very area, that God has called you together for, has not been the object of your prayers, and it’s needs have not been lifted up. Yes, you have had a good prayer time and yes all prayer is good – but the thing you were called together for, has not received the attention it is.

Another example is: our group is called to pray for the City and all it’s churches. In our first year together, people would come out to pray, that had other prayer burdens. While we wanted to pray for the city of Abbotsford, others would begin to pray for Canada, some would pray for Israel, others would pray for the political issues – ALL good prayer needs – but ultimately it caused disunity in the group, as no one issue was actually being prayed for completely, and there was a sense of continually wrestling for the floor (so to speak).Personal issues also were a constant source of wrestling for attention. At the same time all these things do need to be prayed about.

Discerning your mandate will also give you a ‘plum line’ to measure other issues up against. Does this line up with why God has called us to pray? It helps keep things focused.

So, pray first: then do personal ministry time. We leave personal ministry till the end of the meeting. That way you never get sidetracked away from the reason why you have gathered together. Determined how long your prayer meeting is to go – one or two hours. THEN decide how much of that time you want to leave for personal ministry to each other, or to pray into other issues that people have come in carrying on their hearts. This way we never rob God of ‘why’ He’s called us to pray.

2. No one person should ever dominate a prayer time.

Everyone in a prayer group needs to agree before you even start, that they are submitting one to another, and to the leader. If one person is dominating the prayer time – praying everything, or praying lengthy, wordy prayers – so that others are not getting a chance to pray, they need to have a teachable heart and humble spirit, and be willing to limit the length of their prayers. This needs to be done so that everyone in the prayer group gets an opportunity to pray.

The reason for this? No one person will have the FULL picture of what God is wanting us to pray! Every person in the group needs to release what they are sensing, what is on their heart – so that the whole picture is revealed through prayer, and covered more thoroughly.

3.Everyone in the group must give their piece.

Since everyone one hears in part, in order to get the full picture, everyone must GIVE their part - what they are hearing or sensing. It’s ‘ok’ if everyone is not hearing the same thing. Remember if we are( in sense) ‘standing on the wall’ around the prayer issue, everyone is seeing from a different perspective, so what one person sees may not look the same as what someone else sees. Like a patchwork quilt, when all the piece are ‘prayed out’ – it’s always amazing at the picture that it reveals. Don’t be afraid of people praying what can even seem contrary to each other. Remember that each person is accountable to giving their piece, and allowing the Holy Spirit to create the bigger picture. This may mean that the leader may have to take time to draw in the quieter ones, and ask them what they are sensing. Recognizing that it is sometimes harder for quieter personalities to ‘jump in’ – so make room for them –draw them out. This also acknowledges that their ‘piece’ IS important.

Read the next post for the more information and the rest of the 'points'!

What is Abbotsford City Prayer?

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