Week of Prayer

Given January 15, 2018

Our church, Zion Family Ministries, has entered into a week of prayer where we are gathering at 6 AM and 7 PM daily to pray for certain things. Our prayer topics are: Repentance, Ourselves, Our Community, Our Government, The Lost, Our Church and Revival.  Last night was the first night and we had almost 60 people there to pray for the first topic, repentance. As I walked around the sanctuary in prayer, God kept speaking to me; answering questions, reminding me of things He had shown me in the past and speaking new things to my mind.  I’d like to share one of these things with you because I know God’s communication will be helpful to all.

First, I asked God what it means to repent. The dictionary defines it as, “To feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.”  I think it means to feel AND express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.  Our “feeling” shows that we really know something’s wrong and to “express” it to God is repentance.  God reminded me of something He showed me several years ago during another time of prayer at church.  I was praying thanking God for my successes, “Thank You for my wife and family, my education degrees and my job.”  I was feeling pretty good for myself then God’s response came and it floored me, “Yeah, you’ve done pretty good for yourself but it’s not all I have planned for you.”  I prayed, “Oh God, I’m so sorry for thinking about all I had done for myself.”  “What do I need to do?”  His reply was, “You need to be broken!”  I said, “OK God, break me.” Then, in my Spirit, I saw myself being broken, reduced into a pile of light brown dust.  God came over and began pouring oil from a jar onto the top of the pile and started working the pile of dust and shaping it into the man He had in mind for me to be.

That vision was what I needed at that time and many times since then when I get to thinking too highly of myself, (See Romans 12:3).  God showed me this night that true repentance involves being broken, admitting it and asking God for forgiveness.  You might be in a place of hard times where you say, “Well, I’m already broken.”  God told me that means you have been broken by the world but now you must allow God to break you so He can build you back up in the way He intended.  When God re-builds us, we will be much better than any building up of ourselves we could do.

Last night I repented and asked for God to do four things: TAKE me as I am, BREAK me into original pieces, MAKE me into what He wants and WAKE me to His plan.  I prayed this for my family, my church, my circle of influence and for God’s people.  It’s time to be broken and repent!