Rob prayed with others for his lost friend. God answered immediately!
Hi, my name is Rob. As a disciple-maker in the Pacific North-West, I toughed it out on my own for nearly 8 years before I realized something—disciple-making is so much better in community! Today, I wanted to share why community—specifically prayer community—has been so crucial my ministry. I also want to tell how God instantaneously answered prayers this week regarding some unbelievers in our lives!
In August of 2018, I joined the Contagious Disciple Making community to get coaching and pursue Disciple-Making Movements with other everyday practitioners like myself. One of the first things that became a normal rhythm for me was CDM's weekly prayer gatherings on Zoom.
Every Wednesday morning, disciple-makers around the world join an hour-long Zoom call to celebrate what God has been doing, pray through Scripture, pray for each other, for the needs of our community, and the unbelievers we are reaching.
Celebrating God Stories, Big and Small
Prayer meetings kick off with a joyous time of sharing what the Lord has been doing in our disciple-making journeys. Some share how a person on their Prayer Calendar was touched by their simple phone call to pray for them. Others tell of how they started a new Discovery Bible Study (DBS), or had a spiritual conversation with their neighbor.
In response to each story, everyone pulls out noisemakers from turkey gobblers to vuvuzelas and lifts up a cacophony of praise for what God has done.
I love this part of the meeting because it lifts my spirits when I'm feeling down and it inspires me to believe that I, too, can take similar steps to see God start movements of disciples who make disciples!
At this week's prayer meeting, Joleene, a Disciple-Maker in San Diego, California, shared how this weekend she and Paul Watson will be hosting a Disciple-Making Training in her city to bring together churches and mobilize believers to make disciples in their neighborhoods. We prayed together as a community that the Lord would bring the people who need to come to this training, for protection from spiritual attack, and for the 2.9 million lost people San Diego County.
If you'd like to host a Disciple-Making Training like Joleene to see movement in your area, contact us at team@contagiousdisciplemaking.com by clicking the button below!
Praying Through Scripture in Repentance
Generally, we then read and pray through a passage of Scripture and focus on three key areas—personal repentance, repentance on behalf of the church, and prayer for the lost world. Personal repentance is a special time for self-reflection and letting God show us where we haven't been surrendering or listening to Him.
When we pray for the church, we repent for the ways that the church—ourselves included—hasn't been obedient. Then we pray that God would transform His church and send laborers into His harvest. After that, we pray for the lost—for entire unreached people groups as well as the unbelievers across our street.
Breakout Rooms: God Answered Our Prayers Within Seconds!
Lastly, we break out into Zoom breakout rooms of 3-4 to pray for each other individually. This brings me to the amazing story God blessed me with this week. In my breakout group, I prayed for Deb, who needed to leave the meeting shortly as she was about to have a DBS with her friend but the friend hadn't shown up online yet.
After that, I asked our newer friend Paul to pray for my atheist friend Alex, who I've wrote about here. Although Alex and I have made our way through 5-6 Discovery Studies, we had been out of touch for 4 months. He hadn't responded to my messages at all. Paul prayed that God would draw Alex's heart back to Himself and revive my friendship with him.
Several seconds later, out of the blue, I got a message from Alex asking how I was doing! I couldn't believe it.
God immediately answered our prayers! However, it didn't stop there. Right as Deb began to pray for Paul, her phone started buzzing. It was her friend who she thought wasn't going to show up for her DBS!
As Deb continued her prayer while her phone nearly buzzed itself off her desk, I sat wide-eyed and mystified. God is so good. He answers prayer! And sometimes, He answers it before we're even done praying!
You're Invited to Weekly Prayer Gatherings on Zoom!
You can join everyday disciple-makers like Rob, Paul, and Deb on Zoom every week on Wednesdays at 8:15am to 9:15am PST.
Click the links below or copy and save the Zoom link (https://zoom.us/j/543739090) to join us for community prayer!