1. Pentecost is the Birthday of the church.
2. Pentecost is a Harvest festival in the Jewish calendar. Our Lord changed it into a harvest of souls.
3. On this day, the Holy Spirit came down like tongues of fire on the disciples, and they spoke in at least 16 understandable languages to people from every nation under heaven. (Acts 2:5)
4. 3000 families were baptized who immediately started meeting in homes where they had apostolic teaching, fellowship, broke bread and prayer. This resulted in signs and miracles, sharing of material blessings and daily addition of new souls. (Acts 2:37-47). Very soon an additional 5,000 families were added (Acts 4:4). Soon the new believers became disciples and multiplied (Acts 6:1,7), and then there was daily multiplication of quality churches (Acts 16:5).
5. The modern day Pentecostal movement was started by 18 African-American women in Azusa Street in 1906. It has now multiplied into 600 million Pentecostals all over the world. Sadly the Pentecostal church does not know its history that it was started by women and continues to degrade women in the church based on distorted versions of Paul's teachings, where Greek word gune was mistranslated as 'women' instead of 'wives'. Empowering women to disciple, baptize, and serve the Lord's supper will create a spiritual tsunami. (1 Cor. 14:33-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12).
6. An organic house church does not need any special building, special day, or special person to conduct it. Wherever two or three gather to gather to eat, meet and gossip the gospel, bind the strongman, make disciples and multiply, is an authentic church because the Lord is present in their midst. (Matt. 18:18-20). It is in the “Gathered church” that edification takes place, but it is in the “Scattered church” that results in multiplication. House churches are biblical, historical, effective, productive, customizable, gender neutral and free.
7. The best way to celebrate the birthday of the church is to replicate the original first Pentecost, i.e. to reap a huge harvest of souls. Aim at baptizing at least 3000 souls. And why not! After all, you believe in a great and awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. You have more resources than Peter. He had no silver or gold, or vehicle, computer, or mobile phone. The simplest way is to invite your neighbors, friends, and colleagues during the Lent period and tell them about the great sacrifice or show them the “Jesus” film. Do not try to make them Christians but disciple them so that they become Followers of Christ by the Pentecost. Do not try to change their culture, name, food habit, or dress code. Do not take them to your church but disciple them wherever they are. The Jews never became Christians; they became Messianic Jews. Do not try to win them by argument but by love.
8. Reaping a tsunami of harvest requires abundant sowing, (2 Cor. 9:6), watering, manuring, protecting from predators, etc. It will include fasting and praying and uniting with like-minded people from neighboring churches.
9. Every Christian is “ordained” to fulfill the Great Commission (GC) of our Lord, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize, equip, and send them on to do the same to the ends of the earth”. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The GC has a historical finality about it and requires a completion mindset. (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; John 20:21).
10. The best way to fulfill that Command is to bring forth lasting fruit (John 15:16) which includes sharing the whole wisdom of God, baptizing and breaking bread from house to house. (Acts 20:20,27; 1 Cor. 11:20-23).
11. Your workplace, village, and the community or business, wherever God has planted you to be a Tree of life, is your primary nuclear church, and you are accountable for their souls. You are to disciple, baptize, and serve the Lord’s supper right there.
12. Aim to be a millionaire of souls. If you consider yourself 'the least' in the kingdom, then God can multiply you into a thousand within a short period of time. (Isa. 60:22; Matt. 11:11; 1 Cor. 1:26-31)
For the last few years, the Nepali Christian Community has been arranging 40 Days of Global Prayer for Nepal—the last day of which coincides with the Global Day of Prayer. The Gospel first came to Nepal in the early 1950s, and since that time, the Lord has been building His Kingdom in Nepal in a powerful way. The arrival of the Gospel in Nepal was a direct result of decades of prayer around the world for Nepal, and now we are experiencing the fruit of this prayer with tremendous growth in the Nepali Church.
Now, over 6 decades later, we believe that God is opening the door even wider for the Gospel and that he will do amazing things in Nepal (Isaiah 43: 19, Joshua 3:5)! Following 10 years of political turmoil that resulted in more than 15,000 deaths, Nepal is now progressing with the peace process and political transformation. However, Nepal is still struggling to write a new constitution which now almost a year overdue. As the 28 May extended deadline for the completion of the constitution approaches, there are renewed fears of more violence and unrest erupting should the constitution not be completed on time. Despite the current situation, we believe that God is able to take this nation into a new promised land of blessings, peace, and prosperity if the Church joins together in prayer. As Joshua said to the Israelites in Joshua 3:5, God wants his people to consecrate themselves as He is going to do amazing things tomorrow!
Please join us in praying for Nepal and help us to circulate the information to as many people as possible so that many Christian brothers and sisters, churches, and organizations around the world will also join us in unified prayer for our nation.
All Nations Convocation Jerusalem and Watchmen’s Tour of Israel begins on Wednesday evening, 28th September-9th October, 2011 from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, the Ten Days of Awe, followed by the 3-day Watchmen’s Tour of Israel from 9th-11th October 2011. Below is the flyer explaining All Nations Convocation Jerusalem (ANCJ) and the Watchmen Tour of Israel. You can download forms and flyers from our website www.jhopfan.org, order the free 15-minute promotional DVD if you don’t have it yet, or watch the DVD at http://vimeo.com/18737493. Over 230 nations have attended. Many say it is the believers United Nations.
Speaker and Worship leaders that will be with us are Heidi Baker, Angus Buchan, Morris Cerullo, Nathaniel Chow, Langton Gatsi, Afeef Halasah, Mathew Kuruvilla, Lance Lambert, John Mulinde, Myels Munroe, Dr. Niko, Jerome Ocampo, Marcio Valadao, Rene Terranova, Ana Paula, Corrado Salme, Carola Haeggkvist, Maurice Sklar, Robert Stearns, Paul Silbur, and more Worship leaders from the 12 major languages.
Also, we would like to send you one of my books: Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. Please send us your postal address that we can send it to you.
A big breakthrough in the fight against child sex trafficking was recently reported by BBC News. Please see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12762333?OCID=fbwin Let’s be encouraged and continue to pray for the protection and deliverance of children. As a law enforcement official affirms in the article: "We will not allow these offenders to carry on committing these awful crimes against young children. We will not rest until we have identified every offender that has been active in this network and others that might be operating on the internet."
Also, in the realm of film making, check out the documentary from Exodus Cry which is releasing in theaters and across college campuses: Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.
THANK YOU for your prayers during the last 21 days of concentrated prayer for the border!
Here are just a FEW of the praise reports that came in while we were praying:
• April 15 – Prayer Initiative begins
• April 17 – A Zetas drug gang leader was arrested for the worst mass killings in Mexico’s narcotics war.
• April 16-17 – Mexican security forces arrested 32 people during raids in Tula and Tulancingo, Hidalgo state, including 28 suspected members of Los Zetas.
• April 19 – Weekend snare nets a quarter-million dollars worth of cocaine at the border checkpoint south of San Clemente.
• April 20 – Based on a tip, Mexican police raided a house in Reynosa (Nuevo Leon state) and freed 68 people who had been kidnapped from a bus by cartel gunmen. This is the third rescue of its kind in Reynosa in just two weeks. Sate police in Nuevo Leon also arrested 45 local policemen in the town of Cadereyta. The local cops are charged with corruption and having ties to Los Zetas drug cartel.
• April 21 – Mexican authorities arrested Marco Antonio Gomez, an alleged Zetas drug cartel lawyer who in charged with managing ransom and extortion payments.
• April 26 – Mexico’s Federal Investigative Agency seized weapons and an estimated 7.7 tons of marijuana from a warehouse in the Magana neighborhood of Tijuana. The cache had a street value of more than $10 million on the U.S. market.
• April 28 – 104 bodies were found in hidden graves since April 11. They had been buried for a minimum of one year.
• April 28 – 29 suspected members of Los Zetas were arrested including 10 police officers, who are suspected of participating in an attack on the Tula security coordinator’s office and in firefights in Pachuca and Zempoala, El Universal.
• April 29 – Benjamin Arellano Felix, the reputed leader of the Tijuana cartel from the 1980s until his arrest in 2002, which was one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, the Mexican Attorney General’s office announced. Felix is one of the highest-profile cartel members extradited under the administration of President Felipe Calderon. (Mexico’s Senate gave a quick nod to an anti-money laundering law targeting the financial structions of the country’s increasingly powerful drug cartels. )
• May 1 – Security forces arrested 26 members of the police force in Tarandacuao, Guanajuato state, for allegedly cooperating with La Familia Michoacana.
• Numerous illegal attempts to cross the border with drugs, weapons, or other ill intent were thwarted at the gate.
Most notably, Juarez, which is known for having the worst crime rate in the world, closed out the month of April with the lowest number of violent deaths in 14 months.
Yuma is classified as being under “operational control”, and the number of immigrants apprehended plummeted from 138,460 in 2005 to 7,116 in 2010 (The Arizona Republic). The smuggling operations that used to run through Yuma now run through Tucson sector. The topography of the Tucson region, environmental regulations, poor radio communication, and federal restrictions on building more towers have prevented agents from being effective. The mountains make illegal activity easy to hide.
Please pray:
• For the drug and human trafficking, gang crimes, and corruption in government and business sectors in Mexico to continue to be found out, brought to justice, and that order, security, and peace will return to the land.
• For the Tucson/Yuma borders to have continued success in stopping the drug/human trafficking.
• For the places of illegal activity to be revealed.
• For wisdom for the authorities and planning engineers to find effective/efficient ways to monitor, secure, and stop and border regions.
On 11 March 2011 (now often called by the Japanese, "3/11"), a magnitude 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami up to 38 meters (124 feet) in height hit Eastern Japan, known as "Tohoku." These two disasters were followed by a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant which was hit by the earthquake and tsunami and consequently began to emit high levels of radioactive substances. Over 25,000 are dead or missing and over 300,00 people displaced. As of 1 May, the nuclear crisis is yet to be fully resolved.
Generous aid and assistance has come to Japan. As one small part, in March, Dr. Joe Ozawa led a team of intercessors to Iwaki, Fukushima, near the nuclear exclusion zone of the damaged reactor. and with local residents, they "stood in the gap between the living and the dead," (Nu 16). Joining with Korean and Chinese people of prayer, the Japanese intercessors then prayed over strategic points in Tokyo. Dr. Ozawa also taught many seminars on "Tohoku humanitarian emergency response: Counseling and Healing," to volunteers, NGOs/NPOs, university students, church workers, and those who were involved in disaster response.
Please pray for:
1. The love, life, and truth of Jesus Christ (John 10:10 and John 14:6) to be poured out upon the Japanese people.
2. The “deception” over the Japanese regarding “death” (esp. ancestor worship) to be broken and their eyes opened to the truth of “eternal life” through Christ.
3. Dr. Ozawa’s message that humanitarian crisis and disaster response requires a holistic approach (relief work + emotional / relational healing + spiritual development in Christ) go forth like ripples to all those in the nation to whom the Lord wants to hear this message.
4. In His divine mercy, the Lord contain any further nuclear crises and withhold any future catastrophic disasters from Japan.
Thank you.
Iran: Forty-one baptised in one city on Easter Sunday
The church in this city had been wiped out in the early 1900s, and there had been no Christian witness until just a few years ago when a Persian speaking church was planted there. This past Easter Sunday forty-one people were baptized there in a thriving church led by Elam graduates. Thirty-nine of them were from a Muslim background and two were from a nominal Christian one. These two had been led to Christ by an Iranian believer from a Muslim background. During a powerful service, twenty-six Iranians, fourteen Afghans, and one Iraqi shared their testimonies and glorified Christ. Families were baptized together. In one case a grandmother with her daughter and son in law and their two teenage boys were baptized, and in another, an Afghan lady with her five children who are in their twenties. (See also World article above) Praise: God the power of the cross and pray that God would keep these new believers under the shadow of His wing. (Ps.91:1)
Iran: Forty-one baptised in one city on Easter Sunday
The church in this city had been wiped out in the early 1900s, and there had been no Christian witness until just a few years ago when a Persian speaking church was planted there. This past Easter Sunday forty-one people were baptized there in a thriving church led by Elam graduates. Thirty-nine of them were from a Muslim background and two were from a nominal Christian one. These two had been led to Christ by an Iranian believer from a Muslim background. During a powerful service, twenty-six Iranians, fourteen Afghans, and one Iraqi shared their testimonies and glorified Christ. Families were baptized together. In one case a grandmother with her daughter and son in law and their two teenage boys were baptized, and in another, an Afghan lady with her five children who are in their twenties. (See also World article above) Praise: God the power of the cross and pray that God would keep these new believers under the shadow of His wing. (Ps.91:1)
The power of the cross endures
Last week, a 64-year-old electrician, Colin Atkinson, was threatened with a disciplinary hearing because he displayed a palm cross on the dashboard of his van. Mr Atkinson hadn't wanted to upset anybody. He had given witness to his faith, in this modest way, for 15 years without anyone complaining. Alas, one person took offence, and that was enough. (See Prayer Alert 16-2011) Thankfully, common sense prevailed, and Wakefield and District Housing, Mr Atkinson's employer, agreed to let him keep the cross on his dashboard. But the case – and the reaction to it – demonstrates once again the power of the cross, and the hold this symbol has on people's imagination. Even people who never go to church understand, at some level, that the cross represents something holy. It draws us out of the everyday world and into the divine and it is at the heart of the mystery of Easter.
Praise: God that common sense has prevailed. (Ps.94:8)
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8470164/The-power-of-the-cross-endures.html
The power of the cross endures
Last week, a 64-year-old electrician, Colin Atkinson, was threatened with a disciplinary hearing because he displayed a palm cross on the dashboard of his van. Mr Atkinson hadn't wanted to upset anybody. He had given witness to his faith, in this modest way, for 15 years without anyone complaining. Alas, one person took offence, and that was enough. (See Prayer Alert 16-2011) Thankfully, common sense prevailed, and Wakefield and District Housing, Mr Atkinson's employer, agreed to let him keep the cross on his dashboard. But the case – and the reaction to it – demonstrates once again the power of the cross, and the hold this symbol has on people's imagination. Even people who never go to church understand, at some level, that the cross represents something holy. It draws us out of the everyday world and into the divine and it is at the heart of the mystery of Easter.
Praise: God that common sense has prevailed. (Ps.94:8)
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/8470164/The-power-of-the-cross-endures.html