The Gateway Church

Yahweh Elyon	God most high	Psalm 7:17
Yahweh Jireh	God my Provider	Gen 22:14
Yahweh Shalom	God my Peace	Judges 6:24
Yahweh Shammah	God who is there	Ezekiel 48:35
Yahweh Rapha	God who heals	Exodus 15:26
El Shaddai	All powerful God	Gen 17:1
El Gibbor	Strong God, our Champion	Isaiah 9:6

I love camping out on this section a while. Enjoying who God is and loving for more of Him!

The world is not as it should be, or how it was created, so now we get to do warfare! We are praying for revolution. May God’s kingdom come in our lives, in our families, in our church, in our town.

Paul spoke of the disciplined Epaphras who “is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in the will of God - Col 4:12. There’s a balance here of prayer lists to pray regularly for certain subjects the Lord lays on your heart and Spirit led spontaneity.

I work my way outwards here

Kingdom come in my life

My family

The Church - healing breakthrough, more disciples, leadership development and 150 on Sundays!

Revival

Church plants in Europe and closer to home

The kingdom of God doesn’t hinge on us, but God somehow involves us as we pray and act in alignment with his will - Your will be done

Somehow our prayers hasten the coming of the Lord 2 Pet 3:12

The first part of the Lord’s prayer is very much God focused - God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s works

The second part is praying for ourselves - our food, our forgiveness and our holiness.

In countries of poverty and war, this takes on a poignant ring - I’ll never forget my mentor Tony Thompson returning for a trip to Sierra Leone where he had been asked to pray constantly for people’s stomachs - they were hungry.

God is he source and provider for us - he cares for the real stuff of life. This of course presupposes that we pray daily - give us our daily bread!

It’s also why God give me a million pounds doesn’t get answered with sure - God doesn’t makes us so comfortable that we never need to pray again

As every day demands its bread, every day demands its prayer - we need daily Manna.

Bread is a basic staple of life and also has spiritual connotations - Jesus is the bread of life and we need the bread of the Word of God to nourish us as much as physical bread.

The wonder of grace is that although we re always sinning, we are always justified. The Lord is not surprised when we mess up - the sins are already paid for on the cross. As we come to him daily, there is always grace an provision for cleansing of our hearts, minds and consciences.

It can be so helpful to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if there is an offensive way in us - our hearts can be so deceitful! wrong attitudes, things that were said that are unloving, or things left unsaid that withheld love and appreciation.

It can be helpful to bring God any besetting sins - habits you are struggling for release in.

One of the marks of the Welsh revival where 100,000 were swept into the kingdom was the question people asked each other - Have you forgiven everybody, everybody? Ask the Spirit to probe your heart in this one. The “as” implies our own forgiveness is somewhat conditional on us forgiving onwards.

Coffee shops often have a pay it forward cup - where you can put some money for someone else to have a coffee that can’t afford it. Forgiveness is like that - we have been so blessed with forgiveness we need to pay it forward - forgive others. Jesus adds an addendum of the conditionality of being forgiven - that we forgive others.

Unforgiveness is imprisoning others in chains of unforgiveness that end up strangling us. Someone once sad unforgiveness - bitterness is drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.

There is a scale of difficulty here. At one end forgiving someone who didn’t say hi, who ignored us. At the other end - abuse in the past, abandonment and real betrayal. Often though the key moment in healing comes as we make the decision to forgive.

As you pray “as we forgive this who have sinned us" against is we may be challenged to release those who have hurt us - without that the discipline of intimacy will be empty. Jesus is the amazing example as he prays forgiveness on those whipping and spitting upon them, for they know not what they are doing.

It’s surely intentional that this phrase follows the previous one as unforgiveness is a huge temptation.

God never leads us into temptation - James tells us our hearts do that job perfectly. But God does always provide a way out - 1 Cor 10:13. We are asking that we will be listening well to His prompting at the second of temptation.

We are asking God to deliver us from the evil one.

I’ll never forget the ministry time where we had had some words of knowledge for healing and as we prayed the dear sister started manifesting a demonic spirit. Friends took her to one side and saw set free. Over the years I have see then devil attack in subtle ways - lots of sickness and overplaying his hand trying to frighten with demonic manifestations trying to strangle in my bed, or an intense coldness trying to prevent me from getting to a child crying in the night. deliver us Lord! and they flee - James says draw near to God, resist the evil one an the will flee. There’s an order here - draw near to God, resist the devil and he flees. Don’t be obsessed with the devil. Be obsessed with God.

One of the devil’s schemes is the accuser - reminding you of past sins and regrets. They are forgiven and cast into the sea of forgetfulness. Deliver us Lord from this thoughts!

This phrase is deliverance and protection

What a comfort to ask God for the armour of God to protect us! Ephesians 6:13 "Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when they of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything stand!”

The Lord wants us to be caught upon the glory, enjoying the presence of God and basking in and drinking in afresh the anointing of God. Jesus prayed it for us in his High Priestly prayer of John 17:24

Ministry:

Father’s touch of intimacy

Deliverance from downheartedness

Freedom