Weekly Intercession For the City

Many of us gathered to pray tonight to intercede for the city. It was a fresh time of humbling ourselves before God and worshipping Him on behalf of the city. We asked for God to reveal Himself to the residents of Long Beach in awesome and creative ways. We know that He will surprise us as we will begin hearing peoples testimonies of how they were drawn to Christ.

Every Monday evening at 7pm intercessors will be atop Signal Hill at Hill Top Park to pray for the city. Every Tuesday evening at 6:30pm intercessors will be at the Kingdom Causes office in Signal Hill to pray for the city. See the "Prayer Gatherings" link at the Web site home page for listings and details.

Long Beach City Watch Monthly

This morning, many intercessors from different churches gathered together for Long Beach City Watch. We shared about the things that God was placing on our hearts regarding the city and we spent time in intercession. It was a wonderful time too of connecting with the other intercessors.

Every 4th Saturday of every month, the strategic intercessors of Long Beach will gather for Long Beach City Watch at the Kingdom Causes office at 9:00 am to pray for the city. See the "Prayer Gatherings" link at the Web site home page of listings and info.

The Battle is Real

"For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore we need to take up the full armor of God..."

I was reminded of this truth today after the prayer walking we did yesterday. Turns out that there were 5 shootings and 1 stabbing across the city later on that day. In fact, I just read that there was a 16 year old that was shot and killed walking on one of the very streets that we were covering in prayer.

The battle is real. What is at stake is the very lives of people whom Christ died for. What is at stake is the enemy overtly and covertly having his way in our cities. The battle is all around us. The battle is waging for the hearts and minds of my neighbors at this very moment. We will continue to work to bring sustained prayer over our cities as we try and serve our King by finding ways to mobilize His people. Let's go! It is worth it!

God is mobilizing a united front in North Long Beach!

Great news. God is on the move in North Long Beach! One of the things that we have been working on locally here is to develop a team of key leaders (pastors, community organizers, etc...) to bring some focus and attention to a broader Kingdom focus here in North Long Beach. This emerging team was called together as a response to many conversations that we had been having about the need to identify, organize and mobilize people to work for the good of the community there. Using our KC language, we would call this a Neighborhood Development Task Force.

This afternoon, we rallied together a team of people to do some prayer walking all over North Long Beach. This was our first mobilization step. We wanted to bring the Lord's blessing to the streets and continue to "break up the soil" for the reception of Good News. We were excited to have confirmation of almost 25 people by noon on the Friday before. We planned on lunch for 30 just in case. Turns out that we almost had 60 people show up. These people represented 15 different ministries! Wow! What a time that we had together praying in unison as a representation of the bride of Christ! What an opportunity that we had to spread out in teams throughout the region praying on the very sites that we were seeking the Lord's response to our prayers! What a representation this was of the hunger that is in God's people for positioning and mobilizing for His purposes here!

Connecting With Other Regional Networkers

After our time of prayer for the city last night, we met with Liel from Jesus Revolution Now! (Los Angeles) and Michael Dalton from PrayCal. It was a great time of connecting and sharing of common vision. They have such refreshing passion - it's awesome! We all first met at last month's LA City Watch in Hollywood. We had such a great time connecting that we wanted to make sure we remained in contact so that we can continue to be available for what the Lord would have us do in this region. We all shared about what God was placing on our hearts for the region and we're excited to see how God would continue to bring us together for the purpose of mobilizing prayer throughout Southern California.

Intercession For the City

We decided to begin meeting for prayer every Tuesday at 6:30pm here at the KC office in Signal Hill. We spent time interceding for the City Council (who also have their council meetings every Tuesday evenings). I spoke to a few other people and they will be joining us on Tuesdays too. Many of us are gathering to prayer walk this coming Saturday in North Long Beach. At first, we were planning on a community picnic at the park but now it's going to be a barbeque at one of the churches up there for the pastors and prayer walkers/intercessors. It'll be a great time!

Update on the Global day of Prayer

This was an interesting experience for me. I first heard about the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) in early February and I had a strong sense that God was stirring His church around the world to be praying through this effort. It is a high value for me to have a globally informed faith and this call from my african brothers to pray struck a chord with me. We tried to spread the word as much as possible here locally in the LA Basin but there was no real traction with our efforts. It was not really on people's radar so it was difficult to get things moving as quick as they needed to. None the less, we made it a part of our 40:24:7 effort to stimulate prayer for our region and we even participated in two different GDOP events on Penetecost Sunday. We drove to Hollywood for one and a stadium in Orange County for the other. It was definately worth it. We joined with over 200 million Christians worldwide that day interceding for our cities!

Here are few links if you want to see how God stirred things up that day all around the world. We are going to be a part of this next year as well!

www.gdopvideo.com
www.globaldayofprayer.com
www.cityrenewal.com.hk

As a side note, I know that God honored my desire to be a part of this event in a special way. While driving around the LA freeways that day I was joined by a dear brother named Jonah Okechukwu. Get this. He is a pastor/evangelist from Cameroon! I had met him only days earlier and we spent much of the day sharing and praying together for God's heart for all nations. What a blessing!!

Pastors pray for Friday Study Ministries

This morning we had a great time gathering at the home of Pastors Ron and Genevieve Beckham. We met at their home because that is where they faithfully serve the "First Church on the Net" which is also known as Friday Study Ministries. We heard testimony of how God uses this ministry to touch the lives of 10's of thousands of people all around the world each and every month. It was truly a blessing to be a part of a group of leaders from 13 other local ministries that were standing in the gap for this innovative church community. One of the primary purposes of these monthly gatherings is to hear stories of how God is working in various contexts around the area. I was filled with joy this morning as I heard the Beckham's share and as I had the opportunity to pray with them. I have long felt that these servants of the Lord are truly a blessing from the Lord to our city here. Keep up the great work!