Prayer Guide Introduction

Abandoned Devotion

Repentance

The Bible clearly encourages us to expect a global visitation of the Lord – His coming. Malachi describes this experience, “But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who bring offerings in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:1-3)

Here we see the truth so clearly – repentance must come before revival. God must set things in order before He can send down His glory. The trenches and channels must be unplugged and cleansed before the river can flow. To desire the latter without expecting the former is folly. Those that would see the glory of God are those who refuse to hide behind their Pharisaic self-righteous garments. Those who like Isaiah (when he faced the Elijah ministry in his life in Isaiah 6) would face up with the truth in repentance asking God to restore order into their lives.

As we pray over the next 21 days in repentance, God will begin to replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. God might bring us and His people face to face with the unpleasant harsh realities of the ugliness of our hearts. Let us remember that God loves us still and trust Him to do mighty restoration among us as we come before Him in repentance.

Wholeheartedness

Wholeheartedness is the key to seeing our lives and hearts become more like Jesus. Jesus is jealous over us and wants not just a part of us or an hour of our time, but all of us, all of our time, all of our emotions, all of our joys, all of our sorrows. We must actively pursue a relationship with God Almighty; relationship doesn’t happen without purposeful connection and quality time.

We will examine 21 qualities that bring us toward wholeheartedness such as holiness, obedience, being clothed with the Word of God, stewardship, and many more. These qualities must be applied to every area of our lives. We cannot just live holy while we are at church and then choose worldly habits as soon as we walk out. We cannot steward our finances and not look to our time, family, resources, gifts, and abilities.

As we pray for these 21 qualities to be cultivated in our lives, ask God to show you the places where these need to be developed that are not as obvious to you. Each day meditate on this quality and ask God to birth it in you if you know it doesn’t exist or grow it to a new level if you do possess it. Those that have walked with God for a considerable length of time know to a greater degree the desperation of needing Jesus moment by moment. Develop an attitude of desperation, knowing without Jesus we can do nothing, but through Him all things are possible!

Revival

Have you felt a little dry lately? Have you sensed God tugging on your heart to draw you back to Himself? Revival is renewing our own fervent love for God, then seeing many others in our community be renewed themselves. Revival is not just personal but corporate, a group of people turning their hearts toward God to give themselves to wholeheartedness and completely surrendering to God’s purposes and plans.

During these 21 days, we will be praying for revival to burst forth on campuses and in universities around the globe. First, pray these prayer points over your own life and ask God where greater fervent love can be nurtured in your own heart. Then pray for students on these campuses and in the universities to sense the Holy Spirit drawing them, awakening the dead parts of their hearts, and reviving them with new life. Ask for the whole university to be seized by the power of God and captivated by the heart of God.

Global Proclamation

Unity

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity! … For there the Lord commanded the blessing – life forevermore.” (Psalm 133:1,3) The God of the universe is so intensely pleased when we are united and of the same mind that He has commanded a blessing. Not just promised, but commanded. Therefore, we can see how it breaks God’s heart when we allow the seeds of discord, bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, and a multitude of other sins to keep us from walking in unity.

We want to walk as God has ordained His people to be in community with one another. Following the model of Jesus as Paul writes in Philippians 2, we want to choose to be of the same mind, putting the interests of others before ourselves. Unity is not about everyone becoming the same thing. If God wanted everyone the same then He would have only made one human or many of the exact same one. God loves diversity, and He intends for it to draw us together and not separate us. Choosing the servant posture, pray that hearts will be softened and ears will be opened to hear the Spirit calling for the end of division and a beginning of cooperation.

Over the next 21 days, ask God to build bridges between us and our families, fellow believers; among student groups, campus ministries; between national Christian ministries, international student groups. Pray for a new level of synergy among student groups that they would be catalyzed into a greater move of students going to the unreached long-term. Ask God for the witness of unity to be attractive to those in the body and a pleasing aroma before His throne.

Barriers to Seeing the Army Mobilized

In Ezekiel 37:11 Ezekiel writes, “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’” Even this army faced their own doubts and despair! The doubts and despair can sometimes be overwhelming when we look to the task before us. The state of the world, the need of the lost around the globe, the lack of workers to reach them, and the personal barriers we face to actually get to the field when we do feel called to go.

Yet, hope is not lost! God is the One who is sovereign over all of these things. And He is the One who is worthy of a great global harvest of souls coming into the Kingdom. God is the One who can help us overcome all of our anxieties and fears, our problems and setbacks, and see a massive movement of laborers sent to the nations.

As we pray over various barriers challenging the emerging generation to engage in global harvest, we look to the One who is not overwhelmed, never worried, never anxious, in order to attain the mind of Christ and His peace. Choose to look at these barriers with the eyes of faith! Choose to see them as God sees them! They are tools to conform us to His image so that we might embrace the pain, but then move beyond them to see the victory that Christ has already attained for us through His shed blood on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.

Receiving the Breath of God to Enter into Our Inheritance

In Ezekiel’s vision, he prophesied to the bones but it wasn’t until the Spirit of God blew upon them that the power of life came upon them. We will remain a heap of bones with muscles and ligaments unless we choose to receive the breath of God, His power, His word, His life into ours that we might become an army marching toward a purpose, God’s global harvest.

In order to receive the breath of God, we must acknowledge that we are just a heap of bones and muscle without His power and breath within us. We must acknowledge our desperation! We can’t reach the lost around the world in our strength – the task is far too great! But all things are possible through God!

Let’s take this moment to reflect on areas where we have tried to do it on our own strength, confess our pride to God, and come humbly before Him that we might receive His power to accomplish that which He has called us to do.

Mobilizing the Army

Jesus spoke to His disciples saying, “”The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” (Matthew 9:37-38) These words resound in the ear of every message bearer currently out in the fields. There is so much to be done, but so few workers to bring in the harvest. There are not enough people in North America to cover the globe with enough workers to see the great commission accomplished in our lifetime. But there are enough believers in the world to see a mighty global harvest in the earth today.

During the next 21 days, we will be praying for countries all around the world to be awakened and catalyzed to fulfill their part in the great commission. We need the whole body of Christ working together to see people from every tribe, tongue, language, and people group standing before the throne of God, worshiping Him in all of His glory. Ask God to move in these places! Simultaneously as you are praying over these places, pray over your church, your friends, your community to be more involved in seeing the unreached hear the message of Jesus’ love whether through, going, giving or praying. Every part is needed to see it accomplished!

Possessing Our Inheritance

“Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” (Psalm 2:8) In Ezekiel, the army is raised up to take possession of the land which is the inheritance for the Israelites. For us today, our inheritance is the nations of the earth. David writes of Jesus receiving the ends of the earth for His possession. As co-heirs with Christ, we stand to inherit and possess this promised treasure as well.

The powerful parable Jesus tells in the gospel of Luke about the lost sheep, leaving the 99 to go after one. Imagine the radical love and jealous heart of the Father to go after not one but millions who have not heard. God’s heart is that every creature hear the good news. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

Over the next 21 days, we will be praying for cities throughout the earth that are crying out for a Savior, hearts that don’t know the powerful grace awaiting them through Jesus Christ. Pray that God would pour out dreams and visions to bring people to Himself. Pray for a mighty outpouring of conviction of sin. Pray for the eyes of their understanding to be enlightened that they may see how very far they are from God and His holiness. Pray for light to pierce the darkness! Ask God to bring in an enormous harvest of souls from the hardest places in the world for His glory’s sake!