Kitty O'Shea's Prayer Group - August 28, 2006

Seven regulars, including newly passed Dr Madden, gathered at Kitty’s to pray today together with Matt who had visited once before.

We shared various needs since several arrived feeling beleaguered for various reasons; and impressions, including Sam’s from recent evangelization in Chinatown that people there were:

• Often aware of Christ and his claims; but had felt hurt or rejected by the church, and had left it; and/or
• Were able to rationalize to themselves their involvement in questionable and sinful activities.

Kelly read from Scripture of “not growing weary of doing good”; and of the armor of God, in which, having done all, we stand.

In prayer, we sought to lead our way into warfare with praise. We were grateful for Kelly’s successful defence; and for the various ways in which God was at work in and around us. We acknowledged the broken covenants which surround us in our society—through failed marriages, lapsed Christians and churches. In the spirit of Isaiah who saw Jerusalem as beautiful and bedecked in jewels, even while she was ruined and broken during the exile, we prayed for the city of Boston—that God would remove the spiritual ‘refuse’ of brokenness and unforgiven sin which is piled high in her streets. This was as true for Chinatown as for the city as a whole. We prayed for the church as a whole; and for workers to be sent into the ‘fields white for harvest’.

We also prayed for Kitty O’Sheas—that it would experience and know God’s blessing; such that in years to come, we could look back to the time when it was a place for alcoholic spirits but became a place for God’s spirit.

We continued to pray for trouble spots in the wider world, including Afganistan, Uzbekistan, and southern Lebanon. We remembered missionaries we knew who were in, or shortly to be in, Africa.

We also remembered personal needs including:

• Joanna’s work situation;
• The marriage of Hank’s friend Tim;
• Andrea’s new situation of misunderstanding in the workplace.

We asked that all would sense God’s hand in and through circumstances, so that they would be alert to his signals where change was needed; and that they would receive clear confirmation of what God is saying.

-D. Porteous

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

It's time to share what happened Friday evening, August 4th , during the weekly healing service at Gateway Christian Fellowship in New Haven, Connecticut. Before I do (and before you do), heed the timely word of caution that my co-steward of the Boston Noon Hour, Alex Canavan, had for me. Resist the temptation to amplify or embellish, or try to make anything happen next. As Oswald Chambers so wisely advised in My Utmost for His Highest, sit under the inspiration of the vision, and wait for the Lord to do whatever He is going to do.

Saturday, I drove down to Gateway, to interview Pastor Brian Simmons about what had happened in his church. He'd been in Europe at the time, but one of his associate pastors was present, along with about 75 regulars. Pastor Brian put it in perspective. Last fall, Dutch Sheets had a prophetic dream. In it, he was preaching at Gateway, and God was giving him a three-point sermon: Miracles are coming to this house. They are coming through covenant. Baptize them into the miraculous. And the miracle that would presage the Awakening would come to a young person at Gateway.

Dutch called Chuck Pierce, his friend and fellow prophet, with whom he'd traveled to all fifty states in the past year's two forerunners telling of the imminent Awakening. He related the dream to Chuck, because he was in it, too, there at the church in New Haven with Dutch. The dream witnessed to Chuck, who recalled that several months earlier, God had told him that the coming year [2006] would be His year for New England. When you see the weather change in winter and the sixty-mile-per-hour winds, you will know that the Awakening wind is come to New England.

Dutch contacted Gateway's pastors, Brian and Candy Simmons, who invited him and Chuck to come share with their congregation. They arrived on January 19th the day after a storm front had roared through New Haven with unprecedented force. The headline in the Register that morning was "BLOWN AWAY!", with the story reporting record-setting 69-mile-per-hour winds.

I remembered hearing a CD of what Dutch had shared with his own congregation back in Colorado Springs, about his visit to New Haven. Lord, he'd asked God at Gateway, why this church? Because of the name. Years ago He had told Dutch: You must turn the prayer movement toward the northeast. You must get the northeast gate open. It is the womb of the nation, and until the womb is open, I cannot birth what I want to birth for the rest of the nation. The beginnings of what I do will start in the northeast .

Then he'd asked the Lord, why this city? Brian had helped him there. New Haven (or New Heaven) was founded by two men who'd come with a dream to build a covenant city, patterned after the Tabernacle. They had covenanted with God, with one another, and with all who'd gone before them. And now Dutch understood what God had meant in his dream sermon, when He said the miracles were coming through covenant.

So what exactly happened? I interviewed Shelli Baker, an evangelist from Branson, Missouri, with a heart for revival, who had led the healing service at Gateway on Friday, August 4th. Having been at the Benny Hinn services at Boston Garden the previous Thursday and Friday, she and her team dared to pray that God would bless their service at Gateway with as strong a healing anointing as He had the Garden.

Apparently He did. When she prayed for individuals, her hands were so hot that it felt like she had curling irons for fingers. The last person she prayed for was a young man who had been a regular at Gateway for several years. He was well known to the congregation and to Shelli, as he had been brought by a friend to previous healing services she had led there. He had a sweet spirit, but he was a deaf mute, who communicated by writing on a notepad. He had been deaf and dumb since his birth, 21 years before.

In her heart, Shelli heard God's direction. She was to put her fingers into the young man's ears. When she did, the young man recoiled, as if he'd received an electric shock. Grabbing his notepad from his friend, he scribbled, "Fire in my neck!"God then told Shelli to command the ears to open. When she did, the left one opened. The congregation crowded in closer.

Now God told her to do what Jesus had done: Cast out the dumb and deaf spirit, a spirit of infirmity. [Mark 9:25, Luke 13:11] She did. (Later the young man reported that at that moment he saw the devil leaving the building and angels come in.)

God told Shelli to put her hand on the young man's throat and command it to open. She did. The young man uttered a high-pitched guttural sound as the first sound he'd ever made. Then, syllable by syllable, she led him in pronouncing his first word: Hal - le - lu - jah!

The congregation went wild with joy. But God was not finished; the right ear was still closed. Now Shelli explained that everything had begun when God said, "Let there be light." Or in Hebrew, simply, "Light: be!" She asked the congregation to join with her in praying "Hearing: be!" Over and over they cried it in unison, ever louder, until the young man's right ear opened.

The congregation was ecstatic. It took a long time for things to calm down, but eventually the people went home, rejoicing. Only a few lingered in the hospitality room, one of whom was the young man. He pointed to Shellia's harp, wanting her to play it. He'd seen her, but never heard her. She agreed, and as she played, the Lord filled the young man with His Spirit, and he began to sing with her in a new prayer language on key, with perfect pitch.

Thats what happened. In my heart God seemed to confirm that it was the beginning of the public events of the Awakening that would become the greatest outpouring of His Spirit since the Day of Pentecost. As you have been telling others, you will now be so busy you will not have time to listen to anything but me, read anything but my Word, do anything but what I specifically call you to do.

Then today is the day?

This is the day that I have made, and you will rejoice and be glad in it.

-David Manuel

Kitty O'Shea's Prayer Group - August 14, 2006

Six regulars gathered at Kitty’s to pray today.

Several of us came bearing Scriptures and a sense of how God was speaking to us through them:

• Dick mentioned 2 Chronicles 7:14, which has been a motif for the Tremont Temple Noon Hour Prayer: if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. He also spoke highly of the Tremont gatherings and recommended David Manuel’s latest book (2004).

• Andrea brought the verse Deuteronomy 4:29 from a church retreat the previous weekend: “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This was an encouragement that God was not to be found in the temple alone, as before, but was accessible to all committed seekers.
• David had been encouraged through reading Walter Bruegemann’s book Hopeful Imagination, about the prophets of exile and homecoming—Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the midst of enormous turmoil, which resulted in the destruction of Judah and Judaism as then known, they spoke words of hope, such as Isaiah 54:1: "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.” Here, the prophet Isaiah drew on the memory of the exiles (from the story of Sara & Abraham) to call into being fresh hope of new life and homecoming for them. He felt encouraged to remember other times of being ‘pregnant’ with a word God had spoken, which had then come to pass; and to have now the same joyful certainty that God was at work in Boston and in our lives.

We also discussed for a while how God seems to use certain places repeatedly in history (such as maybe Tremont Temple and Park Street Church again now) versus his doing something ‘new’. We noted that ‘newness’ for Judah in 6^th Century BC meant uprooting and destruction of life as they knew it, but was followed by the promise of homecoming through the prophets, for the people who heard it as Judah collapsed.

In prayer, we asked to hear God’s voice amid all the competing voices seeking to make sense of our times, that we might pray and respond widely to them. We prayed that the Boston business community might not be left out of God’s work as the result of busy-ness or pride, but that they hear his voice and co-operate. We also prayed for peace in the Middle east, and especially Lebanon & Israel, remembering victims of the violence, and asking for change of heart in the war makers. We asked that God would be glorified in the midst of all the tough circumstances there.

David shared his sense during prayer that, rather than being pregnant with God’s word in Boston, the spiritual birth of revival or of God’s newness had already happened here: we were living in times akin to those between the birth of Jesus, heralded in the spiritual realms by scores of angels and on earth by only a few shepherds and wise men, and the time when he emerged (after some 30 years or so) into public ministry for a short period, which changed the world. We prayed that we would be wise watch-people, looking for the signs of God’s emergence and preparing ourselves and others for that time, whenever that might be and however that might happen.

We also remembered to pray for:

• Dick’s lunch with Matthew, for whom we have prayed before, on Thursday;
• K.’s dissertation defense next Monday; and
• Afterwards, J. asked for prayer as she followed up with a call this week to her recent job interviewer.

-D. Porteus

Kitty O'Shea's Prayer Group - August 7, 2006

Five regulars gathered at Kitty’s to pray today, joined by L. who had visited before.

Among the updates, we discussed how easily fear can become pervasive—noting that healthy, reverent fear of God is a positive thing, which has characterized many revivals; but that Jesus often said "Fear not", when addressing his disciples and others who, like us, could easily be frightened, including by his appearance. Fear was not something to dismiss as simply being an attack of the Devil, since it could shake ungodly confidence and lead people to God.

B. shared his recent encouragement through reading Katherine Marshall to dream big—with God’s invitation and encouragement.

In prayer, we expressed gratitude for the many opportunities which had been given us in this city. We prayed for deep fruitfulness in our lives, and boldness to match, with a full recognition of how our feet were planted on the Rock. We prayed for two girls, who were drawn by the games console near the new prayer corner in Kitty’s and who were playing as we prayed. We prayed too for Kitty O’Sheas and asked God’s blessing on the place and all its customers.


We continued to pray for the Middle East, praying against all warmongers and all those who use God’s name in vain there, and for real peace in the region under its true King.

Among individual prayer foci, we:
Prayed for S’s upcoming medical checkup—that the last vertebra would have been fully fused;
Discussed the changes coming at Freedom and Destiny street evangelism ministries which is now without a coordinator;
Remembered J’s friend Matt; and
Asked that God would give wisdom to J, and open new doors for her, following the positive job interview last week.

-D. Porteous

Kitty O'Shea's Prayer Group - July 31, 2006

Eight regulars gathered at Kitty’s to pray today, joined by Martha.
We gathered with news to share:

Of M’s short term mission trips to New Mexico; of a new job interview for J; and news of last week’s Tremont temple gathering which was filmed by PBS.

We went to prayer, recognizing that a large part of the purpose of our gatherings is to listen and hear through each of us what is on the Father’s heart. D brought the story of someone whom he had seen that morning, watering the sidewalk with a watering can. This led to prayers that God would reveal to each of us where we were wasting our energy and focus; and that he would direct us to where to sow and water. We prayed for fruitfulness in our work, to counter in part the selfishness of those who give up working simply because they don’t need the money to live. We also asked for wisdom to know when to move and when to go.

However, we also remembered the vivid ministry of Old Testament prophets who prophesied using strange actions and even performances to underline their message. We prayed that the watering of the sidewalk would be prophetic of God’s work in bringing fresh water to hard and dry places, like people’s hearts in the city, which he alone can break open, heal and touch. We asked to be faithful in our own ministry in the market place to those around us, trusting God for the outcomes but being change agents ourselves.

We prayed too for the various ministries touching Boston at this time:
For the aftermath and follow up to the Benny Hinn meetings; and
For Park Street and Tremont Temple, as two churches at the centre of the city geographically and also spiritually in many ways.

We remembered the war in the Middle East, praying for Israel, and for the victims of the recent violence on all sides.

Among individual prayer foci, we:
Prayed for the family to whom M had ministered on the mission’s trip;
Remembered J’s brother, currently in Italy; and
Gave thanks for D’s clean bill of health after a recent health scare.

-D. Porteous

Lincolnshire (UK) Police enlist the power of prayer

By Ruth Gledhill

Police in Lincolnshire are turning to prayer in their latest efforts to tackle crime. The force is asking churchgoers to concentrate their prayers on crimes such as burglaries and violent attacks.

The Prayer Watch scheme, a spiritual version of Neighbourhood Watch, has been proposed by members of the Lincolnshire branch of the Christian Police Association. The plan is for the police to e-mail churches and Christian groups with details of specific crimes, which worshippers can then focus on in their prayers.

Dick Holmes, a police spokesman, said the project is designed to encourage communities to keep an eye on the churches themselves. “They are prime targets for thieves and vandals and there have been well-publicised spates of trouble across the county.

“Obviously there is the spiritual element which lets communities know about specific incidents in their area so they can focus their prayers on them if they wish.”