Praying For YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6

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Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God for YWAM Foundations Values 4, 5, and 6.

He is inviting you!

During the month of April we invite you to join YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, as we focus on three of YWAM’s Foundational Values:

• Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer (value 4)
• Be Visionary (value 5)
• Champion Young People (value 6).

In values 4 – 6 we see the very core of YWAM: without youth, there is no Youth With A Mission and without worship and intercessory prayer we don’t hear God and we don’t receive His vision for our lives.

According to the late Iain Muir, formerly YWAM’s International Director “From the very beginning, we learned that as worship brought us into His presence, we could hear His voice and experience His heart, leading us into intercession. All that we did came out of guidance we received during intercession and worship.” Please see below for a testimony of how the value of worship and intercession continues to shape a YWAMer from India.

A YWAM leader and author, John Dawson  recalls the ancient Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision” when thinking about being visionary and says “To be visionary is to see Him. To be visionary is to see His nature, His character. It is in seeing Jesus, in the ’call to intimacy‘ with God and with each other, that we receive the grace of His presence, the revelation of the government of Jesus, and the birth of new vision and purposes of God for our lives, our families, our nations and even for civilizations.”

And lastly, regarding youth, another YWAM leader, Danny Lehmann, says “Championing the young among us is essential for our very life as a mission. They bring new life and fresh vision which helps us avoid slipping into the comfortable rut of doing what we’ve always done. Young people are not YWAM’s future, they are YWAM!”

As you pray and contemplate these foundational values, we would love to receive stories from you regarding how these values have shaped your ministry or your life (prayer@ywam.org).

Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of April to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, April 12. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for YWAMers to grow in worship, intercession, understanding of God’s vision for us, and inclusion of youth.

Prepare to Pray:

As you prepare to pray, consider this scripture from Psalm 40: “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted … May those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the Lord.’”

Begin by taking time individually to write down those blessings you have experienced in the past month. How have you experienced God’s goodness in your life during the past few weeks? Make a short note of each experience of goodness and blessing in your life during this timeframe that you can recall.

Who has made a note of 5 things? Who has ten? Who could remember the highest number of blessings in their life from this time? After 5-10 minutes you might want to take a moment for people to speak out their thanks to God for these very real experiences of His goodness.

Next encourage people to reflect on their list of blessings. What was God revealing to you about His character through these experiences? Challenge yourself to write something different for each blessing. Were you learning that God is faithful? That He is generous? That He is detailed and intentional? Write those things down. Then get into groups of two or three. Allow time for each person to share one or more of their blessings and what they learned about God through that experience.

Close with a time of worship and thanksgiving for all the ways God makes Himself known to us and for His goodness in our lives.

Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6:

• Pray for YWAM locations to keep our values as foundations in ministry.
• Pray for YWAMers to better know God through worship and prayer.
• Pray for the Lord to give us tremendous passion in worship.
• Pray for clarity in God’s direction during intercessory prayer.
• Thank the Lord for visionary missionaries who have gone before us.
• Pray for YWAMers, young and old, to have mature and powerful statements of Jesus.
• Pray for clarity in our life message, our vision and for our godly character to shine.
• Pray for visionary leaders and continuity of such leaders.
• Pray for us to be energized by the vision and callings given to us by God and that we will embrace His vision.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Ancient Irish Hymn

• Pray for youth to be drawn to YWAM for discipleship.
• Pray for effectiveness of our discipling activities with youth. Pray that we will seek out the reliable young men and women among us (2 Timothy 2:2) and challenge them to greatness as servants of the Lord. Pray for leaders to be assertive in discipling youth and for our youth to be assertive in seeking discipleship.
• Pray for transformation of people/nations due to ministries of youth.
• Pray for youth to come to Christ in record numbers.
• Pray for wisdom in championing young people.
• Pray for God to provide fresh vision to our youth and for his guiding.
• Pray for our whole mission to learn from the youth among us and to hear God through them.
• Pray for this generation of youth to do great things for God.

Take Action:

• Conduct an evening of worship and intercessory prayer. Focus on YWAM Foundational Value #4 as the topic. Record part of the worship segment and use it in social media to call out your location’s commitment to worship and prayer. Implement ideas that God brings out that will enhance your location’s worship and intercessory prayer time.
• If your location does not yet have a designated prayer room, consider establishing one.
• Watch the movie War Room and/or conduct Bible study associated with the movie.
• Visit the Chazown (Hebrew for “vision”) website or read the book: https://www.life.church/chazown/
• As a group do a word study of the word “vision” in the Bible and/or listen intently to various Christian songs with lyrics that include the word “vision”. Discuss what you learn. (Possible songs: “Be Thou My Vision”, “You Are My Vision”, “The Vision”, and “God, I Look to You”.)
• Talk to people at your location who have been there for awhile and ask them how the location has come to be what it is today. Discuss past leaders/people, the specific visions God gave them, and how those were implemented. Share these stories with others in YWAM (prayer@ywam.org).
• If you are a youth don’t wait for someone to actively disciple you. Seek out a mentor.
• Invite a youth to participate in some social activity like playing pool, cooking or other activity, and have a discipling conversation. Listen to their God-given dreams and serve them in their fulfillment of those dreams.
• Start or add to a ministry at your location that focuses on investing in youth.
• Create a work of art that reflects YWAM’s foundational values that can be put on display at your location or shared with others at your location. (Mural, bookmarks, etc.)
• Conduct a day/evening celebration of testimonies. Ask each participant to include something about one of the YWAM Foundational Values. Share these stories with prayer@ywam.org.
• Share on facebook.com/youthwithamission, post a picture and add a comment about how you prayed.
• Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.

How We Prayed

March 2018 – Entertainment Industry and Arts and Sports Celebration Sphere

• The Cowboys with a Mission (CWAM) DTS that just started in Meeteetse, Wyoming the week earlier prayed as a group.
• We heard from people who prayed in the following countries: Switzerland, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Cyprus, Australia and France. People also prayed across the United States, from Washington state to Florida and from Minnesota to Texas.
• YWAM Seamill, UK was led by God to pray for more “awe and wonder” of God to be released and they listened to the song “Where the River Flows” that is based on Ezekiel 47 – where the river flows everything will live and they called out for God’s river to flow through the Celebration Sphere.
• A parent of a young man starting a DTS in Mexico in June responded to our prayer request on Facebook and requested prayer for her son.
• Lynn Green, YWAM leadership team reported that this topic is amazingly timely with respect to how the Lord is leading YWAM.

Future Topics:

• May 10, 2018 Refugees Update/30 Days
• June 14, 2018 Contemplative
• July 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 (Be Broad-structured and Decentralized, Be International and Interdenominational, Have a Biblical Christian Worldview)

Don’t Miss The Invitation:

• Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.

A Testimony about YWAM’s Value Four: Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer

My name is Khumba James, serving in YWAM Bangalore since 2010.

I joined YWAM to staff Discipleship Training Schools. Honestly I didn’t have much expectation from this value on worship. I thought I wasn’t a musician but I was wrong. But I had this one thought that kept on challenging me– young people.

I began to enjoy our corporate worship times. I remember how my days were filled with thought about worship and worship songs. Every Monday worship time in the base had been my favorite, where I learned to express my worship to God. Lifting up my hands and singing out my heart to Him was new and fresh. And I loved it so much. I started spending time alone with God for not less than two hours a day. The time just went by alone in a room singing and praying. I learned that spending time with God is never boring and wasted. Instead the best of all.

One day I asked one of my senior staff that if I can have a chance to lead Monday worship session. He didn’t say no. He said okay but wait. This is where I started pushing myself to work on my skills and intimacy with God more than before. There is so much beauty and passion within a song we sing. So much wholeness and healing everytime I express my worship to God. I needed fellowship and corporate worship time, I needed God and his presence all the time. My cold heartedness and dryness was replaced by longing for God and passion to sing his songs and pray. This was the becoming of new life and freedom.

People gave positive feedback about my worship leading and ministry. This was overwhelming at times. But I knew it’s God who deserves all the glory.

Two years staffing in DTS has guided me to this vision, and I did YWAM’s School of Music In Mission in 2012. God opened the door to work with my mentor and leader Thanga Nohro. We led worship together. I’m forever thankful to God for this passion, and bringing the right leaders and friends around me in the right time. I have learned to trust God for all my needs as a musician leading worship.

I recorded my first worship album in 2016-17. This is something I never thought of ever in my entire life. God is good and all the glory belongs to him.

To worship God and be in awe of him is always my desire constantly. To know him more and learn his ways, to be more intimate in my relationship with him, to hear his voice and know where he is leading me, and to be used by him is my whole passion and purpose. To respond to him with all my love and reverence, declare his praises and witness his goodness and promises is my calling.

Worship and Intercession is the reason I’m in YWAM. I do help others in churches and schools with this in mind.

May God continue to inspire you and increase his anointing on you for his glory. God is faithful beyond our understanding. God called you and will equip you. This is what I have learned.

Blessings,
Khumba James,
YWAM  Bangalore, India.