intercession for the transgressor-- day 33 of 40

"Recently I was meditating on the beauty of Christ’s intercession or, should I say, the beauty of his brutal and bloody work on the cross. There was nothing about his life that was sterile, painless, and plastic. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, but for the joy set before Him of the harvest of souls, he endured the cross and despised the shame. Christ was an intercessor.

The difference between prayer and intercession is that in intercession we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We walk the Via Dolorosa. We bear the reproach. Our death becomes the highway upon which the captives walk over to freedom.

A few years ago, one of our leaders had a dream. In the dream, a prophetic father was speaking with me and before us stood a great field with brush and thorns. Beyond the field was a great field of splendid wheat. He said to me in the dream, “The harvest is guaranteed if you can make it through the thorns.” Jesus made it through the thorns on His head for the joy set before Him. May we continue through the thorns for the guaranteed harvest!"

-Lou Engle


wow... to be an intercessor like Jesus... is so humbling to think about. He paid it all, he suffered and endured through everything. and if christ is our example, we too must give it all. this is the life of an intercessor. Suffering is written in the blood of those who fully give their lives to Christ, but joy evermore and everlasting is found at their right hand.
Jesus make me an intercessor for your namesake.

day 30 of 40-- Living a lifestlye of prayer that moves mountains (part II)

“And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons.” (Mark 3:13-15)

Reflection: Our prayer must not only move God to action, but our prayers must also move us to action. Mark 3 tells the story of Jesus calling His disciples. The first reason He called the disciples was so they might “be with Him.” The first call of prayer is to “be with Jesus.” But the result of the disciples being with Jesus was that they were sent to preach the Gospel with power. We must not be satisfied with our prayer meetings unless there is a sending that happens once we’ve been with Jesus. Our prayer life must result in our lives demonstrating God in power and love. Too many times we continually ask God to do what He has already commissioned us to do. Our prayer meetings become huddles that never require movement from us. Many times God responds to our prayers by equipping and empowering us to be the very answers to our prayers. But in order for those prayers to be answered we must be moved to action. God has anointed us with the Holy Spirit for a reason: so impossible situations will bow the knee to Jesus. The Bible says that the heavens belong to God but the earth has been given to man; we need to take responsibility over what is ours.


If we’re not careful, our prayers can become cries for revival in the distant future and not doorways to revival in the present. Jesus gave us authority over demons, sickness, disease, and darkness so we could bring His reality to earth right now. But our prayers must move us to action if that authority is to manifest. While we must continue to have prayer meetings where we cry out for God’s Kingdom to show up, there must be times when we step out and see God’s Kingdom show up through our lives.


Prayer: Jesus, we want to be sent by You to touch a lost and dying world. You have given us authority on the earth to see Your Kingdom come and so we pray that You would give us the courage to become the very answer to our prayers. May our prayers not only stir the heavens, but may they stir our own souls to move with You as You move on the earth.


www.studentrevivalmovement.com

day 30 of 40

" If added power attends the united prayer of two or three, what mighty triumphs there will be when hundreds of thousands of consistent members of the Church are with one accord day by day making intercession for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom.”

(John R. Mott)

day 29 of 40-- Living a lifestlye of prayer that moves mountains

“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:25)

Reflection: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In other words, if you throw a ball at a brick wall, that ball is going to bounce off that wall and come back to you. Action causes action. This is what we are looking for when we pray. One of the most powerful actions in the universe is prayer. Therefore, true prayer must produce and cause action. It’s time we become unsatisfied with anything less than our prayers resulting in action!


God is moved to action by our prayers. He is listening intently and is eager to respond to the cries of our heart. Throughout Scripture we see the picture of God not only listening to prayer but responding to prayer. Isaiah 64:4 could be paraphrased by saying, “God is moved to action by those who seek Him.” That’s incredible! It’s prayer that ‘awakens’ God to move in our city and in our lives. It’s prayer that pierces the heavens and gets God’s attention. So we pray, believing that the God we serve loves to show up in response to our prayers. For too long the Church has been satisfied with incomplete prayers.**Our prayer meetings actively engage in the first part of prayer – asking, seeking, and knocking. But prayer is not only asking, seeking, and knocking.Prayer is also receiving, finding, and having doors open. If we don’t believe for and look for the second part of prayer then we are settling for incomplete prayers.


As you pray, look with great anticipation for God to respond to your prayers, for He is moved to action by your intercession.


Prayer: God, we pray that You would find faith in the earth. A church that actively believes You respond to prayer and eagerly looks for that response in their lives, cities, and campuses.


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super touched by yesterday's devotional for the 21-day campus wide fast-- what a great revelation to recieve!
yes, when we pray, we are asking, seeking, and knocking. petitioning to the lord, seeking direction/ guidance, and hoping to see more breakthroughs in the our lives as well as the loves of others. But if prayer moves mountains, if prayer brings action, then we should also expect prayer to usher in the same movement when we ask, seek, and knock. what happens when we ask? we will recieve. what happens when we seek? we will find. and what happens when we knock? then doors will be opened to us. How much do you really believe in prayer? is prayer merely inward focused, designed to align your will with God's will, or is it also outward focused, purposed to propel the kingdom forward and to change things in the world as we speak forth truth?

"So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

(Mark 11:22-24)


thus, brothers and sisters-- prayer that moves into action. amen and hallelujiah! This is the true heart of an intercessor.


For more day by day devotionals during the 21-day campus-wide fast, visit
http://studentrevivalmovement.com
!

god bless and keep persevering! :D
Lots of love
<3

day 28 0f 40

i was starting to grow weary. last week i found myself burning out, running around doing this or that, going to this prayer meeting or another. My quiet times with God were diminishing significantly. once again, i was being more of a martha than a mary... for one reason or another, I just couldnt sit still. and when I did have some quiet times with god, it seemed harder to connect with him. I was drained out, and what i gave to Jesus weren't the golden hours of my time; rather they were the last-minute moments of my day, wimpy measures of effort to set aside some time for God-- yet it wasnt whole-hearted devotion.


I kept on asking Him,
Lord, why is it that its harder for me to connect with you? why doesn't your presence fill me like it did before when i woke up in the morning or when i read the word, or even when i pray? Lord, am I not seeking your face? am i not desiring to know you lord? Jesus, why does my heart indicate to me that something is amiss... god please enlighten my eyes and show me the areas of my life i need to turn away from...

it was then when i realized that i wasnt giving him all my devotion. I thought i was, because i was doing so many things for him. and i thought i was fervently seeking after him because i was involved with so many prayer meetings...but my attention was divided with ministry , the "things i needed/ felt obligated to do" when in actualilty, god didnt specifically ordain me to do them. I had taken on the self-righteous mentality of "if i don't do it, if im not going to these prayer meetings or doing this and that, then no one else will and nothing will happen."
I was again, caught up in doing things for god and equating his pleasure for me with how much i could do for him, and even expecting him to move according to how much i did or howmany prayer meetings i went to.



but last night i was reminded again, that its not what we can do or how much we can do for god, rather, its about how much we allow God to do things through us.
Because in the end, we are not the ones moving mountains, we are only allowing God to move and work in the way he wants to.

It's not a revival

its not about encountering a new movement of God across the campuses, across this nation.
its not even about witnessing a new revival.
revival is just a fancy term, just a to describe the very core of what an awakening is—
because its ultimately just seeking after the face of god.


continually beholding the face of god, continually drinking in his presence is the core of a revival. Revival is essentially intimately and powerfully beholding his face in a way that transforms everything inside of us, a metamorphosis that unfolds into a new creation. because we cannot give what we do not have, if we are not continuously seeking his face, then we cannot allow other people to see his face. we cannot bring heaven down to earth because Heaven is God’s magnificent, overwhelming and intoxicating presence and glory.



But its not even about revival. yes, revival is good... and every beat of my heart cries out for a new awakening of God, for God to shake up our lives and the lives of every soul in this nation. But this weekend I realized that I had been putting my hopes in the wrong thing. yes, my soul cries for more fire to consume all of the people around me, for revival to shake the very grounds of my campus, my church, and this nation... but my hope is not in revival... my hope is in Jesus.



revival is the arrival of the Lord’s glory, and in his breathtaking and shining glory is his POWER and his PRESENCE. it is in his presence that we behold his splendor...and it is also in his presence that everything else will follow. This weekend God kept on reiterating to me through sermons how vital his presence, intimacy with god, was in my life. Jesus calls us to intimacy by telling us to abide in him like a branch stays connected to the vine... without the vine, the branches would wither away. yet, as jesus calls us to abide in him, he is also inviting us to live in complete dependency and communion with him, cultivating intimacy through that connection. And through this connection, through the intimacy with Jesus he promises us that we will bear fruit! so if we keep seeking after the face of god, everything will come after that—revival, breakthroughs, anointings, joy, and all the other fruits of the spirit.


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today is the first day of the California campus wide 21 day Daniel fast, and I cant contain my excitement because I know the Lord will come like a brilliant and pure song resounding in our hearts. I know there will be breakthroughs and shiftings in the atmosphere to prepare the way for more of the glory of god!

as for UCI, we plan to gather 3 times a day to pray during this fast: 7am, 12pm, and 7pm.
but because of this weekend, now more than ever, I don’t want UCI to be known as the place where revival broke forth, but a place where students are radically in love with the Lord, who fervently seek his face every moment of their lives. I want UCI to be an army of lovers, deeply in love and consumed with his glory. because honestly, God is more concerned about our hearts and our intimacy with him than he is about revival, for revival is only a byproduct of the goodness of experiencing his face.

its not a revival. its people gathered hungrily and fervently seeking after His glorious face.

Day 13 of 40-- prayer request #2

This weekend was by far one of the hardest weekends I have had this whole year.

I came back home to Pasadena on Friday, and the minute I got home tensions were so high between my mom and I. I don't really want to go into so much detail, but my mom started scrutinizing everything about me and then wouldn't talk to me, and at the dinner table she couldn't stop talking about why I was fasting. After dinner my sister and I drove to church for Friday night fellowship, and on the way there I cried because I felt so rejected by my mom and I kept thinking about how I should have handled this situation differently...

Since I could remember, my mom hasn't been this mad at me for at least years... and the same arguing continued saturday, and into sunday. It got even worse when grace stepped in to try to help my mom understand, and then they were arguing as well.


later that sunday night i was talking with my sister and i became so convicted of my sins and how often my pride can cause me to think that I am always right. I had been wanting to take out the needle in someone else's eyes when there was such a huge problem in my own eyes. I had been complaining about wanting my parents to have a change of mind and a softened heart towards this situation, and ive been desiring so desperately for them to understand why I am doing these things, that it's not just because I'm "crazy"; yet, I have failed to understand them and see things from their eyes.
If I want them to change... I must change first. How can I expect them to change if I am unwilling to change? Why should I expect someone to understand me, when I should be first reconciling with them and assessing all their concerns and the reasons for worry?



yes... i do feel a bit persecuted by my family... but even when Jesus was mocked at, trampled on, and beaten-- he still loved his enemies. The son of God, who was completely holy and blameless, did not even consider for one moment now badly he was being treated, but only focused on even saving those who wanted to kill him. For the Jesus did not come into the world to be ministered to, but to give his life up as a ransom for many--even the ones who hated and killed him!


I am again, in desperate need of God's grace in my life, for me to have this same attitude towards my family and even all those who will hate me...
more humbleness and grace to love my parents the way God loves them, despite the circumstances or the arguments that may occur...to learn how to appreciate them and see how beloved they are through god's eyes. And more love in general because love conquers all and overcomes all and prevails through all... this is my prayer for now.


other than that, God is still very very very good! wish i had time to write it all though, but i will try to post a few things (hopefully short things :]) haha.

God bless!
keep pressing into Him and keep praying because theres SO MUCH POWER in prayer. Its like the invisible force behind every major/ or minor battle ;]