Author: a4cadmin1

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MF-Somebody Is Praying

A4C Philippines joined with A4C US held a simple worship service last January 26, 2020. It was filled with thanksgivings and praises for yet another productive year made possible only by God’s grace in the different conferences and ministries the team has ventured. At one point, there was a moment of silence when Ate Barb Stensgard mentioned about a Sister from her church who composed a very meaningful prayer for A4C.

 

It was a pleasant reminder for us that the graces of heaven were made available at our disposal through prayers. We thrived in “going alongside” God’s servants through uncertainty of calamities (volcano eruptions), threat of a virus (NCoV), long travels, sickness, among other challenges because many people share our desire for the greater glory of God. Surely, someone unknown to us, in his or her room, secretly but fervently was knocking on heaven’s door in our behalf.


Listen to her prayers.

Prayers for Presenters:

 

I pray for good flight connections and safety in the air and on the ground.

 

I pray that each person involved would get sufficient rest and that You would multiply their sleep. I pray for the quick adjustment to the time change

 

I pray that the team would be anxious for nothing but that in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving they would present their request to You.

 

I pray for good health and safe food.

 

I pray that each member of the group would be united in purpose and faithful in prayer.

 

I pray for supernatural wisdom for the leaders so that each would know when to speak, when to be silent, when to intervene and when to be still.

Remind the group daily that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Don’t let what is seen with the eyes cloud what they know to be true.

 

I pray that each person would daily humble themselves under Your Almighty Hand so that they are only Your vessel through which Your power and Your purpose can flow.

 

I pray that You alone would be lifted up and glorified.

 

Prayers for the Facilities:

 

I pray that You would spread a spiritual canopy of divine love and divine protection over the entire grounds and over each person involved in any way.

 

I pray that Your peace which surpass all comprehension would permeate the meeting rooms, the sleeping rooms, and the entire area where this conference is being held. I pray that each person would feel Your peace and know Your presence.

 

I pray that You would command Your angels to surround and protect the grounds, the buildings, and each person involved.

 

I pray that Satan would be bound from having any control over these meetings in any way.

 

Prayers for the Pastors attending:

 

I pray that every Pastor who desires to be at the conference would get there safely and on time.

 

You are the God of all hope. Restore hope to those who have lost it and remind each person in attendance that You are the God who rose the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead; You are the God who parted the Red Sea and You are still the God who can do far more than we can ever ask or imagine.

 

I pray that You would daily instill in each person attending this conference a deep and permanent and unquenchable hunger and thirst for You and Your Word and Your righteousness.

 

I pray that each Pastor attending would daily and deliberately offer their bodies to You as living and holy sacrifices that are pleasing to You.

 

I pray that the spirit of division would have no place in this conference and that instead, the spirit of peace and unity would permeate all the sessions.

 

Prayers for the home congregations:

 

As the pastors return home, I pray that they would return to congregations whose hearts and minds are open and ready to hear and act upon Your truth as it is spoken to them.

 

I pray that revival would sweep through the land like a mighty roaring river washing away the phony facades that have been erected. I pray that sins would be uncovered and that Your truth would shine like a beacon drawing many more to a saving knowledge of You as their Lord and Savior.

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MF-The Incomparable Christ

More than nineteen hundred years ago,

There was a Man born contrary to the laws of life.

This Man lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity.

He did not travel extensively.

Only once did He cross the boundary of the country in which He lived;

That was during His exile in childhood.

 

He possessed neither wealth nor influence.

His relatives were inconspicuous and had neither training nor formal education.

 

In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled doctors;

In manhood He ruled the course of nature, walked upon the waves as pavement,

And hushed the sea to sleep.

 

He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His service.

 

He never wrote a book, and yet perhaps all the libraries of the world

Could not hold the books that have been written about Him.

 

He never wrote a song, and yet He has furnished the theme

For more songs than all the songwriters combined.

 

He never founded a college, but all the schools put together

Cannot boast of having as many students.

 

He never marshaled an army, nor drafted a soldier, nor fired a gun;

And yet no leader ever had more volunteers who have, under His orders,

Made more rebels stack arms and surrender without a shot fired.

 

He never practiced psychiatry, and yet He has healed more broken hearts

Than all the doctors far and near.

 

Once each week multitudes congregate at worshiping assemblies

To pay homage and respect to Him.

 

The names of the past, proud statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone.

The names of the past scientists, philosophers, and theologians have come and gone.

But the name of this Man multiplies more and more. Though time has spread

Nineteen hundred years between the people of this generation

And the mockers at His crucifixion, He still lives.

His enemies could not destroy Him, and the grave could not hold Him.

 

He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory, proclaimed of God,

Acknowledged by angels, adored by saints, and feared by devils, as the risen,

Personal Christ, our Lord and Savior.

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MF-Though the Fig Tree

We often hear for an encouragement that “God has plans”–that He has a purpose for everything. This we know for a fact as the Bible teaches us many times. So for people in great pain due to loss, those struggling with financial crises, suffering terminal illnesses, and battling sins all around, we say that “God has plans” for these experiences.

Really? Is it safe to say that we fully understand what this phrase truly means? It sounds like this cliché seems to push a button within us to switch on the good vibes; to signal our brain to channel only positivity and nothing else.

These words seem to become a magic pill every child of God takes to cloud their minds with good things to counter the bad. But what if God does not intend for us to counter the bad experiences but to embrace them? What if God gives us the pain to take through the night in our deepest lament and that we are not to escape, or have it eliminated?

Job’s extreme and grotesque pains were not meant to be overcame because “God has a plan”. When Paul patiently looked to God for healing, he was not meant to be healed because “God has a plan”. For Habakkuk, the darkest evils one can imagine were not meant to be answered with the good because again, “God has a plan”.

God brought upon Job great sufferings so that He could raise 77 questions back to back, which only pointed to the whole created order –who is the MOST HIGH. And that was the plan. The matter is resolved for Job and for the narrator not due to the restoration that occurred at the final chapter but primarily because of the majesty and presence of God that was realized through the experience. No wonder then that the writer explained without hesitation, that everything Job lived through are from God (42:11).

For Paul, God inflicted pain upon the greatest of all the apostles to clearly show him that His grace is sufficient; that despite our weakness, His power remains undisputed. That was the plan.

In Habakkuk, God used the most sinister of evils to show His people that He is the greatest source of rejoicing, not His material favors (read Habakkuk 3:17-19). That was the plan.

So the next time we tell “God has a plan” to someone in pain, confusion, deep desperation, great loss, DEPRESSION, or “kept BY GOD in the dark night of the soul”, say these words with great care. Most of these experiences are meant for His children TO GO THROUGH. Even when at times, they require our very lives.

“God has a plan” means in the Bible that God specifically and ESPECIALLY DESIGNED every trial for each of His children. Get that? He especially designed this particular tumor in that specific part of my body at this certain stage, JUST FOR ME. Everything that causes us pain and trouble, big and small, each of them is seriously or intimately being thought through by God for us to embrace. His purpose is to lead us to HIM who brings the ultimate healing: rest for our souls. We are given trials sovereignly decided by the TRINITY for us so that as we embrace our brokenness, we are led to HIM who can make us whole again.

“THOU madest us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in THEE.”

– Saint Aurelius Augustine