EPRAY! Global » Youth for Christ International

Monday, September 6

324

YFCI Corporate Day of Prayer and Fasting with purpose
Monday, September 6

I invite you to set aside the first Monday of each month to pray and fast with many others in YFC. I send a themed directive on the Thursday before which you can incorporate into your day. Please join us!

FOCUS: every…
Our vision is to see every young person in every people group in every nation have the opportunity to make an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ and become a part of a local church.

Thoughts on Stimulating Revival, One of YFC’s Beginning Objectives from the ePRAY! Desk of Linda Stershic

YFC exists only to promote evangelism in our generation; to reach the unreached in the shortest time possible; to stimulate revival in the Body of Christ. (Taken from what and why of Youth for Christ, published in the early 1950’s, written by Dr. Robert Cook, second YFCI President.)

Decisive. Concentrated. Breakthrough. Victory.
I was asked today if I thought God was saying to give up on this idea of revival. My response was that I am unable to do so. Whether that is my tenaciousness or strictly to do with the Spirit’s leading or both I do not know.

But this I know. We are in a war unlike any military battle this world has known but both wars - the spiritual battle for souls and all military battles - share one thing in common – the desire for victory.

We can learn some from military strategists who have concluded that the “concentration of forces” has been the most successful military strategy and the reason for most of the decisive military victories in history. This is the strategy of concentrating forces at a point in the enemy's line in order to create a breakthrough. Once a breakthrough in the lines is accomplished, then the enemy must retreat to keep from allowing the opposing forces into its rear area, destroying its supply lines and surrounding its frontline troops.

In military terms – decisive, concentrated, breakthrough, victory.

In spiritual terms – decisive prayer, concentrated prayer, breakthrough prayer, victory prayer.

Certainly I know of no way other than prayer for revival to reach our world in this generation. Do you?

Says Armin Gesswein, “I firmly believe that one of my friends (a great missionary leader) was right when he made the classical statement: ‘I believe in revival, because it is the only thing that has all the dimensions for all the need.’ Nothing else is big enough, and nothing less is fast enough, to really, truly, fully get the job done. In other words, I believe in Christ's revival method because it is the only thing that has the proper size and the proper speed to reach the uttermost part of the earth.”

No other “method” has the potential of reaching the world in our generation - so I pray.

Linda

I continue on with my thoughts on reaching the unreached in the shortest time possible using whatever means possible including revival. Please know that I am not asking you to read and meditate on all my thoughts but maybe chose one.

THOUGHT ONE

Tears.

“The multitudes that were so dear to Christ shall not be less dear to me. If I cannot prevent their moral suicide, I shall at least baptize them with my human tears.

I choose a broken heart rather than any happiness that ignores the tragedy of human life and human death.

If in spite of all I can do they will sin against light and bring upon themselves the displeasure of a holy God, then I must not let them go their sad way unwept.

Though I, through the grace of God in Christ, no longer lie under Adam's sin, I would still feel a bond of compassion for all of Adam's tragic race, and I am determined that I shall go down to the grave or up into God's heaven mourning for the lost and the perishing.” A.W. Tozer

Words of this man either cause question or cause introspection. As for me I chose the route of introspection and came up wanting. I want for those tears but greater than the tears I want for a heart that sees the lost as lost. I know this statement to be true, the lost are lost, but I don’t believe this heart of mine is truly acting as if I believe it is true.

Can God work with such as I? I must believe so. I will pray. Give to me the eyes to see as Christ, the heart to feel as Christ, and the mind to follow Christ. And thus will I do as God enables me. Amen.

THOUGHT TWO
No longer are we in the 50’s when things were good and people relatively good. Where families made Sunday church day and the Bible was taught in schools. When gum chewing was the number one offense in school. When mom and pop were home with their children sitting around their black and white TV watching The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. When wholesome was "normal"; comedy was clean; girls wore poodle skirts; children and adults relished the hula hoop; and the sound of rock 'n roll was special and so was Pat Boone. (From an American prospective)

We have moved beyond this ideal, or the somewhat “norm,” and have moved into a world were the “norm” seems much less innocent and much closer to evil.

In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice.

“Let a flood or a fire hit a populous countryside and no able-bodied citizen feels that he has any right to rest till he has done all he can to save as many as he can. While death stalks farmhouse and village no one dares relax; this is the accepted code by which we live. The critical emergency for some becomes an emergency for all, from the highest government official to the local Boy Scout troop. As long as the flood rages or the fire roars on, no one talks of "normal times." No times are normal while helpless people cower in the path of destruction.

The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were "normal." Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.”

A.W. Tozer

We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were "normal." Nothing is normal and ordinary measures will not suffice.

THOUGHT THREE

Must a man die to himself…

Thomas Maclellan made a covenant with God in 1857 in the Scottish town of Blairgowrie. It was the young Maclellan’s 20th birthday, but his youth was no hindrance to his phenomenal spiritual maturity. Having come to terms with his own sinful nature and the grace of God through Christ, he covenanted control of his life and the proceeds to God Almighty, adapting his covenant from one written by the Puritan preacher Phillip Doddridge in The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Amidst both trials and successes, he would renew and confirm his covenant with God twice in the next half-century: 30 years later on his 50th birthday and again on his 70th birthday in 1907 in Chattanooga, TN/USA. Five generations later the company he built, now UnumProvident Corp., is the largest disability insurer in the world. Also, for more than 50 years the Maclellan Foundation remains committed to Maclellan’s God as it gives to further the kingdom of Christ in accordance with the Great Commission.

Here is a key part of that covenant…

“Receive me, I beseech Thee, and make me to desire nothing so much as that I may be Thine, who art my rightful owner and sovereign Ruler. O God of Heaven, record it in the book of Thy remembrances that from henceforth I am Thine forever. I renounce all former lords that have had dominion over me and consecrate all that I am and all that I have, the faculties of my mind, the members of my body, my worldly possessions, my time, and my influence over others, all to be used entirely for Thy glory and resolutely employed in obedience to Thy commands as long as Thou continuest me in life…To Thy direction also, I resign myself and all that I have to be disposed of by Thee as Thou shalt see fit. To Thee I leave the management of all events and desire that Thou enable me to say, without reserve, not my will but Thine be done. Knowing that Thou governest all things wisely and will ever do that which is best for me.”

Twice born, once, twice, thrice, and four to die…

FOCUS: every…through prayer

“Up in a little town in Maine, things were pretty dead some years ago. The churches were not accomplishing anything. There were a few Godly men in the churches, and they said: 'Here we are, only uneducated laymen; but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man. Who shall it be?' They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered all their prayers upon him. In a week, he was converted. They centered their prayers upon the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to God, and the fire spread out into all the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour.” Dr. R.A. Torrey

May each of us center our prayers on one lost young person. "Who shall it be?"

· Ask God to open their spiritual eyes (2 Cor. 4-4).

· Ask God to set them free from spiritual captivity (2 Tim. 2:25-26).

· Ask God to give them ears to hear (Matt. 13:15), faith to believe (Acts 20:21), and will to respond (Rom. 10:9).

· Ask God to send people into their lives to witness to them (Matt. 9:38).

· Ask God for ways to build caring relationships (1 Cor. 9:22).

· Ask God for opportunities to witness (Col 4:3).

· Ask God for boldness to witness (Acts 4:29).

· Ask God for an opportunity to invite them to a harvest event (Luke 14:23).

Pray for the “final, complete evangelization of the world”

As we pray towards and through this today, as did our “founding folks”, let us never forget our rich heritage of being an instrument of God, born of the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the final, complete evangelization of the world and if it pleases Him, that He do so through the sovereign condition called revival.

Be fishers of men and pray-ers for men,

NEXT YFCI PRAYER AND FASTING WITH PURPOSE DAY

Subscription Options