Prayer Conference Report 1
Topic: Prayer
I promised someone that I would give a report on the prayer conference my husband and I went to, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be to do. How do you capture 3 days of studying prayer….of being in God’s presence in worship and under teaching that seemed to be appointed by Him for this very time? The conference was a week ago, and I’ve been mulling it over and wondering how to condense and overview. A lot of what we learned I will just touch on. Here goes:

Last Wednesday night, my friend Joy picked me up to drive together across town for a prayer conference. (My husband couldn’t come on Wednesday because he had a prayer meeting to lead at our church.) We were not quite sure what to expect, but wanted to get the most out of what was touted as a very great conference.

The worship was so well done. The worship leader had a special gift for drawing you into really worshipping and not thinking about him or his band, but about God’s holiness and goodness.

This first night, the speaker was from Uganda, Jackson Senyonga. He spoke of Uganda and how God has gotten a hold on his country. It has become mostly Christian now and people who still live secular lifestyles do not feel at home there. The president quotes from the Bible when addressing the country and AIDS has become contained and dwindling in the past few years there. He said on an average day, walking on the city streets, he regularly hears people discussing the Bible and praying.

And it all started with faithful prayer for their country.

It wasn’t a program or plan, it was due to people practicing God’s presence in their daily lives and when God is present in a person’s life, people take notice and He draws them to Himself. Acts 17:26-28

Then after telling us how wonderful it is in his country during this time of awakening….he told us that he believes God is calling the United States for the next awakening. It begins with His people returning to prayer, to repentance and to holiness. “Changed people change people.” “God wants to fumigate nations with His presence.”

Can you imagine that in the United States? Deuteronomy 4:4-7

His points: (these are from notes taken from Jackson Senyonga’s sermon 6/14/06)

1. It takes God…His presence, not programs or making churches more comfortable or fun….it just takes God.

2. It takes power. No prayer, no power….little prayer, little power…..much prayer, much power. It takes humility to pray much….prayerlessness is a sign of pride.

3. We need to take away the limits and restrictions that we put on God in prayer. He wants to do great things and here we are celebrating the little things.

4. It takes obedience. Obedience requires sacrifice….something must die. And that would be our ‘self’. Surrender your way to what He is telling you to do.

We need to take prayer to a deeper level. People who will be able to experience a deeper level of prayer will do 3 things.

1. They experience private victories before any public victories can happen. Our inner lives must change. We must conquer the sins that hold us back from really experiencing God’s power in our lives.

2. They will arise from slumber. We are lulled into apathy by our own love of comfort. We need to set aside our comforts that distract us and focus on God’s work in our world…in our country, city, neighborhoods and homes. He talked about how in Uganda, the country was oppressed through hunger and lack of daily needs. In America, we are oppressed by our abundance of things….our daily needs are met without thought and our wants multiply. We need to lay down materialism.

3. They will start to pray out of desperation. God wets our spiritual appetites and we think that was the main course. God wants to do wonderful things, change countries, not just serve appetizers.


Psalm 2:8-9 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter ;you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

Jeremiah 33:3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Amen

This was just one sermon. I have notes scribbled in my notebook and on handouts from the sessions I went to. Maybe I will do more another day. There was so much to take in, it seemed like we weren’t going to retain anything from information overload. But as I go back through these notes, it is coming back to me. So as I review the notes, I will try to type out some reports. Okay, Cathee? =)