Join us in prayer our Faith Advance Prayer & Fasting Week January 11-17, 2018. You may download our prayer guide as a resource for this week.

Call to Prevailing Prayer

“You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” Isaiah 62:6-7

Dear Praying Church Family of FCF,

In light of the special season of FCF in our leadership movements, our seeking God for His direction, provision and blessing for the strategic advancement of His Kingdom and glory among us, and our desire to move from strength to strength, we are calling the Body of FCF to a week of prevailing prayer.  In this week of prevailing prayer, January 11-17, we are calling for individuals, couples, ministry teams, community groups and other fellowship gatherings to focused prayer wherever and whenever possible. On Wednesday January 17, we will have a closing praise and thanksgiving service from 6-6:30, prior to our fellowship potluck and congregational meeting.  The pastoral staff is providing a prayer guide to cover our mission and ministries, and include a special prayer focus each day on the work of our pastoral search committee and needs of the church. We believe that God will use this week of prevailing prayer as a great means of strength, unity and advancing His purposes and Kingdom among us for His praise and glory.   

What is this call of prevailing prayer?

Prevailing Prayer, according to Dr. Tim Keller of Redeemer church NYC, is prayer that calls out to God repeatedly, in a sustained way.  Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon on Genesis 32:26-29, entitled “The Way to Obtain the Blessing of God is Not to Let Him Go Except He Bless Us.” notices how often the Bible urges us to pray to God in a sustained, repeated way for his blessing. But why would this be necessary? Edwards proposes the following reasons:

First, God wants us to do it this way so our hearts lose their self-sufficiency. If God’s blessings just came upon us without a lot of prayer, we would be hard-hearted and proud, assuming that a good and comfortable life is simply ‘the right of all sensible folk. 

Second, God wants us to do it so our hearts will be prepared to rejoice in him as the author of all blessings. If God’s blessings just came upon us without a lot of prayer, we would not perceive him as the source of everything we need. When we don’t pray we are robbing ourselves of our joy. 

Third, when we do prevailing prayer corporately then the attainment of blessing creates community, knitting our hearts together. When we pray together for some individual’s blessing that person feels a support and solidarity that cannot be given in any other way. In short, God asks us to do prevailing prayer because he knows that it is very dangerous to give us good things unless our heart and spiritual vision are prepared through much prayer.

What is the lesson? Lloyd-Jones encourages us: “I commend to you the reading of biographies of those who have been used by God in the church throughout the centuries, especially in revival. And you will find this same holy boldness, this arguing, this reasoning, this putting the case to God, pleading his own promises. Oh, that is the whole secret of prayer. Thomas Goodwin uses a wonderful term. He says, “Sue him for it, sue him for it.” Do not leave him alone. Pester him, as it were, with his own promise. Quote the Scripture to him. And, you know, God delights to hear us doing it, as father likes to see this element in his own child who has obviously been listening to what his father has been saying.”  Shall we pester God? Shall we nag him? Shall we remind him of his promises? Only if we are obedient. (notes from Tim Keller on prevailing prayer) 

Grace upon grace to you,

Pastor Craig Garriott                 Pastor Stan Long