This week we’ve been talking about how we can integrate prayer in the cell. Brother Lawrence coined the phrase, “Practicing the Presence of God.” If a cell recognizes “Christ in the midst” prayer will be spontaneous and can happen at any point in the cell gathering, rather than being relegated to a specific time and place, or just a closing exercise.
Cell members who are in tune with God and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit will be ready to pray at any point in the gathering. Right in the middle of a discussion, we’ve stopped and had a person who was welling up with tears sit in a chair so others could gather around and pray for and with them.
This week I wanted to draw your attention to two things we do in our cells that really allow us to get specific in prayer beyond just being ready to pray as led by the Spirit at any point in the gathering.
First: During our weekly breakout time for discipleship. We break into two’s or three’s, men with men and women with women. We use the following questions to share transparently and hold each other accountable.
Life Transformation Questions (For use in groups of three/two)
#1 How have you done this week in meeting the Lord through prayer and reading His Word?
#2 What do you hope to do differently as a result of this week’s passage/message?
#3 Do you have a need to confess any sin?
#4 Who are you praying for to receive Christ? What is the next step you need to take in this relationship?
#5 How can we pray for you? (Burdens, Hopes…)
As you can see any honest sharing on any of these questions can lead to specific prayer. We try to give at least one half hour to this breakout time.
Second: During our mission focus at the end of cell. All our cells have adopted international pastors for prayer and ministry. We want each of our cells to have a heart for the nations. So at the end of each cell gathering we come back together after the discipleship time and we pray specifically for one of the needs of our international pastor that we have adopted as a cell.
God has provided many blessings to these pastors as people’s hearts have softened through prayer and God has directed them to meet the needs they were praying for. God loves to answer prayer specifically, so make sure there are opportunities to share specific requests as you gather the next time.
Comments?
Michael
First of all, I’m sorry because of my ‘broken’ english. I’m Brasilian and my birth language is Portuguese. If you be pacient with me I think I can be ‘understandable’.
I’ve join to this blog since Pr. Joel Comiskey was here in Brasil, last month. Very usefull all of considerations about prayer in the cells. I have a very fresh experience to share about the power of the pray into the cell format:
I am a cell leader and yesterday morning (wednesday) I received a terrible notice. The sister of one of my employee (I have a small business) was kidnaped during an assault in a city located 350km from here. His family was totaly disorientated with the situation.
Immediatly I sent an SMS to all components of my cell asking them to pray about this urgent situation. The request passed one by one and several members of my church was involved in this particular pray request.
God answer the pray and she was found free, alive and without any injury almost 20h after the kidnap.
Through this situation we can learn many different lessions about pray in cells:
First of all is that God anwer us – Alleluia!
Second – In the cells we can envolve a lot of people very quikly. People we know very well and have commitment with God and with the members.
Third – we don’t have to wait for the cell meeting to pray as cell and to fell connected as cell.
Fourth – The bless comes through the cell group and can reach people that are not necessarly envolved in this cell.
Fifth – The bless obtained with the intercession return to all members of the cell because they can see very closely the God operation.
I want to inform as well that I’m translating this blog every day and sending to all of my cell members. This is a very good experience for all of us. Thanks God for this, and for all of you: Joel, Jeff, Mario, Steve and Michael.
Christian, Wow thank you very much for sharing your experience. I love your five reasons prayer is so powerful in our cells. Thank you so much for your encouragement. You encourage us by passing on the insights shared in this blog. Your insights have added to this topic. May God Bless you and your cell group!
I sure wish the American church could catch on with the power of prayer in homes… so few churches I work with really focus on it as a staple of cell life—and they wonder why their groups are not growing.