Prayer is Powerful, Prayer Changes Lives and Situations

James 4:2: “You have not because you do not ask God.” The phrase supports the premise that prayer changes lives and situations. Men in Ministry, the life we have we have created for ourselves as a reflection of our prayer life. When children decide not to serve the Lord, when the boss decides to put us in a terrible situation, when our marriage is not going well, when our finances are in disarray, all are a refection of our prayer life.

Ask in the Name of Jesus

Attached to the phrase from James 4:2 are a few if’s. God answers prayer to those who obey His commands and do what pleases Him. If my prayer life is in line with God, I will be in constant communication with the Holy Spirit. In this state, I will be obeying God’s commands and doing what pleases Him. Falling, repenting and turning from sin is pleasing to God. Not the falling part, but what we do immediately after the falling part. Prayer is powerful!

How long or how much time should I be praying? This is the wrong question. If a man has an appointment with a highly sought after leader, does the man ask: How much time do I need to spend with the person? No, the man asks how much time do I get with the person? This is the same question for us to ask when we are preparing to pray. God hears us. God will give us His undivided attention for as long as we want it. Prayer is powerful!

Psalm 40:1-2: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire; He set my feet on a rock.” This Psalm strikes at my heart, to think that God will stop what He is doing turn to me and listen to me, then lift me out of my junk and put me on Jesus, the rock. I can get the King of King’s undivided attention.

Enter the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise. God inhabits the praises of His people.

Enter His Courts With Praise

Jesus says in John 16:23 “Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”  This tells us we need to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus. Ask for anything and it will be given to us, if we ask in the name of Jesus. Always keep in mind God knows what is best and when it is best for us to receive.

Examine your prayer life: does it mirror the prayer life of Jesus? Does your prayer life follow the directions of Paul, in Ephesians? Is it better for us to be in God’s presence consistently or only in an emergency?

Prayer changes lives and situations. God is waiting for us to enter His throne room and ask for whatever we need in the name of His Son Jesus.

Glad Tidings Men in Ministry

Glad Tidings Men in Ministry Neighborhood Prayer Groups Some Results

The purpose of the Glad Tidings Men in Ministry Neighborhood Groups is fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, and ministry and worship this separates the groups from affinity groups or ministry groups. The groups are intentionally Spirit-Led. The groups are following Biblical Principles from Acts 2:42 "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The Glad Tidings Men's Small Groups are also in the vision of our Pastor.

The groups are in the will of God and the vision of our Pastor. The expectation is the results would be enormous. The results are hugely significant. Men's lives are changing. Something we hear all the time. So what if we did all this work and there was not any evidence of changed lives. Lives would have still been changed. Why would I say  that? God's Word never comes back empty. Isaiah 55:11 "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

I can talk about men who are now engaged with the Word and Prayer for the first time in their lives. A man, who has gone from living for the world has entered an intense Christian intern program. Men who never participate, in any Men inMinistry activities are opening up to become consistent contributors in these meetings. Men, who are invisible on Sunday and Wednesday but are actively participating in the meetings. All of these men have a lot to contribute; we just needed to provide a comfortable forum. 

The city of San Francisco is changing because men are meeting, to fellowship, study the Word, worship and pray together. Based on Isaiah 55:11 if seventy men gather each week to obey God what will happen. The results do not have limits because God does not have limits. Here, also the men are demonstrating the love of Jesus through the love they have for one and other.

Jesus worked in small groups He had 12 Apostles. He had thousands of followers at one point He fed 5,000 men not counting the women and children another He fed 7,000. Jesus could have operated with a huge number of people. Jesus knew that He would be effective operating with a small group. Look at the results: Christianity. After the day of Pentecost Peter, being led by the Spirit, spoke and 3,000 were added to their number. Look at the results of being Spirit Led. 

The Glad Tidings Men in Ministry small group meetings are Spirit Led, Bible study, fellowship, and prayer and worship meetings. Can we even imagine the results that God will produce from these meetings?

San Francisco belongs to the Lord it is the light which will lead the world in the great revival.

Whenever I think is all the work worth it, God reminds me that He died for every one of of us. Even if, there were only one of us, He would have died for the salvation of that person. One man changed from these meetings produces massive results.

Glad Tidings Men in Ministry

Glad Tidings Men In Ministry Neighborhood Prayer Groups

The Glad Tidings Men in Ministry Neighborhood Prayer Groups have one objective that is to develop a large group of Holy Spirit Led Men who Pray and Study the Bible. If men are spirit led, the results are men who obey God’s commands and do what pleases Him. In the natural, we aim to bring all of San Francisco to Jesus Christ. In the supernatural, we are storming the gates of heaven and warring in the heavens. Thy Kingdom Come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  As of this writing we have 9 active groups, throughout the city of San Francisco. 

Shortly we will have a group within walking distance for every man in San Francisco.

Men in Ministry the neighborhood groups are having a stunning impact on the men and on the City of San Francisco. The testimony of men opening up and talking about life continues to be the best outcome of the groups. When the men open up they are talking about their prayer life all the things that get in the way of daily prayer. The result from each man is nothing should get in the way of prayer and Bible  Study. Nothing is more valuable than spending quality time with God doing what pleases Him by understanding the will of God for each one of us through consistent, daily prayer and Bible Study.

The Neighborhood Groups are using The Power of Prayer by RA Torrey as the basis for the meetings.  The true basis is the Bible, which is the foundation for RA Torrey’s Book. Torrey is candid, he writes as though he is talking to each one of us about our individual commitment to time with God. One of his examples is a man in the waiting room preparing to meet with the Queen of England. That man is not thinking of how much time must I spend with the Queen he is thinking how much time does the Queen have to spend with me. We know God listens to us he will spend as much time with us as we want to spend with Him. He gives us His undivided attention. Psalm 40: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.” God makes all the time in the world available for us and He gives us His undivided attention when we ask for it.

The groups have a format to promote fellowship (go here for a guide to Men's Neighborhood Groups) and emphasize a personal prayer and Bible Study Life. Less than 20% of Church attending Christians read the Bible daily. This will change as a result of the men’s small groups, one man at a time. By changing this dynamic, we are changing the city of San Francisco and the world.

RA Torrey tells us that a person cannot be a praying Christian without being a Bible Studying Christian they are inseparable.

Men in Ministry, is it possible to be a disciple of Christ without being a praying Bible studying man?

Glad Tidings Men in Ministry International

Bible Reading

Men in Ministry, on track or off track, how do you know? The Bible is the basic to answering this question. The Bible is also fundamental to the daily Spiritual Warfare Prayers. Luke 10:21: At that time Jesus, full of the joy of the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father for this was your good pleasure."

The Bible is Designed to Be Easy to Read and Understand

We live our lives with the foundation in the Word, Prayer and good preaching and teaching.  Christianity Today reports that less than 20% of all church going Protestants read the Bible daily.  Ninety percent of church-going Protestants desire to please and honor Jesus. Is that a conflict or what?

Men in Ministry do you want to take a passive or active approach to your faith? The better question may be: if 90% of church going Protestants want to please Jesus is not Bible reading, studying His Word, a main area of pleasing Jesus? Is pleasing Jesus doing good stuff? Is pleasing Jesus picking what we like to do?

In 1985, I was a New, Freshly Baptized adult Christian. Hungry for God; I came to know the Lord because my wife had a couple’s Bible Study in our living room. I intended to passively participate, to please her. That lasted about 15 minutes. I could not get enough of the Word in me. I went out the next day and bought a Bible. That year at Christmas, a few months later, the Pastor of Neighborhood Assembly Pastor Rozelle, distributed One Year Bible Reading Guides. I still have it in my Bible. That year I read the Bible through for the first time. The habit was later reinforced and rekindled in San Francisco. Pastor “recommended” that we read a specific version of the Bible each year. I fought it and went back to the One Year Bible Reading Guide. I confessed the disobedience and few years later began reading the exact version he recommended each year.

Men in Ministry, the Bible tells us in Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This is the early church. The church as Jesus designed it. The Church as we are the churches calling each day Holy Spirit come. The example we are to follow. As Christians, we are to follow Jesus and be like Him. When in the desert being tempted Jesus used the Bible to fend off the devil. How can the Word be buried in the heart if we do not read and study it?

Bible reading is fundamental obedience. Consider that obedience begins when we are joyfully, immediately and totally doing what Jesus wants us to do NOT what we chose.  Bible Reading is fundamental to prayer. A person cannot be a prayer unless he studies the Bible and cannot study the Bible unless he is a prayer.

Build a daily regimen of thanksgiving, worship, prayer and Bible Reading. Get a One Year Bible in 15 minutes a day you will read the Bible through in 1 year. In the One Year depending on your selected version. It will provide a daily reading of Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Other versions provide a different daily mix.

Men in Ministry, to realize everything God has for you, you must fully participate in Christianity.

Reference: There are over 50 Scripture Verses, which tell us to read the Bible.

  Glad Tidings Men in Ministry International