Spiritual Warfare

[Syreth]

I think that there has been some serious warfare going on lately with several of the members of CAA, with struggles of every sort. I wanted to start this thread to rally everyone that frequents the prayer room to pray for everyone on CAA that might be having a spiritual struggle of some sort. I think it would be a good idea to pray the word of God, since that's the substance for our sustenance. Feel free to pray however you like, though. Remember those who are struggling with depression and suicide, and also lift up everyone who has made large contributions of time and energy to CAA, especially the staff. My prayer for everyone on CAA is Colossians 1:9-14 --

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[CreatureArt]

Good point, and an excellent call to prayer, Syreth. True - many seem to be under spiritual attack and need our support. I'm paraphrasing here: but the Word says something about our battles not being against fleash and blood but against principalities and powers - and we need to spend time in prayer and fasting for our CAA siblings-in-Christ to support them.

I pray especially for comfort and triumph for all you under attack - for strengthening and deliverance. That God will keep your faith strong, that he will build you and hold you and bring you through into victory. That he will bring you out of the winter time into spring. God bless you all. May he shelter you under his wings in safety and comfort.

I found some verses too (also in Colossians)

2Co 1:3-11 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort.
He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble.

We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives...You never disappoint us. You suffered as much as we did, and we know that you will be comforted as we were.... Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seemed certain. In fact, we felt sure that we were going to die. But this made us stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting God, who raises the dead to life.

God saved us from the threat of death, and we are sure that he will do it again and again.
Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers.


I also pray protection for the staff and moderators; that God will supernaturally protect them and guide them, that he would help them and come beside them each day and continue to come closer and closer to them.

May God bless, keep, guide, comfort and protect all those on CAA and their loved ones.

[Hephzibah]

I have noticed that alot of members seem to be under attack recently as well. I think we should use this thread to create a summarised prayer list, and maybe we should form a prayer chain where certain people are designated specific things to pray for. It could be like the Knights of CAA, except focusing specifically on Prayer. I am willing to help organise it if its approved.

[Syreth]

That sounds like an excellent idea. What needs to be done to get something like that started?

[Hephzibah]

I dont really know... maybe we could ask a mod or something. We will also need to make an annoucement somewhere asking people if they will want to join the prayer team. Also, we need a nifty name! Like Prayer Warriors or something I'll go ask Ashley if we can organise something like this

[Jaltus-bot]

Can I join?

[Anna Mae]

An excellent idea indeed, Syreth. It does seem that we are under attack.

Can I join?

I would be interested in joining also.

[Ashley]

Hello everyone. Talame pointed me here and I must say I'm quite excited to see everyone so enthusiastic about praying for one another. That's wonderful! To lift your brothers and sisters up in prayer in their time of need is a great goal for the community to have, and I'd love to see this happen.

Officially though, I'm gonna talk to the staff and see what their thoughts are on it, but there should be no trouble in getting you guys permission and all.

[Hephzibah]

Yay!
I shall start to compile prayer requests that are still recent *dashes off to search prayer room*

-------------------------------------
V8Tsunami - Been seeing shadows/feeling demonic presences. He rebukes it in Jesus' name, and it goes away for a time, but keeps coming back.

ct girl - almost commited suicide (felt like something was taking over her). However, lately she has been feeling alot better, and is going to talk to her pastor tomorrow

Bobtheduck - Depression / possible Paranoid Schizzophrenic (mother was diagnosed as having it) No update as of yet

Zelda27 - Goes from being extremely depressed to extremely happy / feeling close to God then far away from Him. Basically, she is on a rollercoaster ride with both her emotions and spiritual life. Possibly bi-polar, or maybe its just those annoying adolescent hormones playing up. No change as of yet.

Heart of Sword - Two men at his chruch have health problems (clotting and pneumonia) No update as of yet

Angel Dragon - cuts herself, thinks of suicide. Updates - has made new friends and is fighting the urges to cut

Chibi_chan - thinking about suicide. Updates - feeling very encouraged by people who replied

Riku777 - Family having financial trouble + older siblings seem hard to cope with. Updates - brothers seem slightly better

Mr Smartypants - a Friends friends mother died along with the baby. No updates yet

rogie_san - PErsonal and family problems (no details) . Updates - things are alot better

Golden_Griff - returning to college + feeling sick.

Bakura_fan - has a fever



This is just the people whose threads where updated today... I didnt actually realise there would be so many! All the more reason to pray!!! But if this is going to work, its going to need a fair bit of organising. Maybe when we get enough members, we can form prayer groups and have leaders who get the lists and split it among their group... just a thought

(o, sorry if I didnt include your prayer request... I will eventually get around to putting up ones that have been updated within 2 days)

[Syreth]

I was thinking about a couple different ways we could spread out requests:

1. We could have the leadership assign members of the group to pray for specific requests. The pros of this is that the prayer would be pretty evenly distributed. The major con that I can think of would be that people might feel burdened to pray for different people than they are assigned to, although I'm sure nobody would complain, since the group's sole purpose is to pray for others.

2. We could have the members pray for people as they feel led. The pro to this is that people would probably focus on the more urgent requests that need more prayer in the first place. The con would be that some requests may be neglected.

I was thinking of having at least one person, or group of people, praying for people every day of the week. For instance, group 1, or person 1 would be assigned a certain day to pray that they could commit. Not to say that they couldn't pray for them the rest of the week, but just for the sake of commitment. The next day, group 2, or person 2 would move in and pray for the requests.

Another thing we might do in the future, if the group gets big, is having groups assigned to specific times of the day. For instance, group 1 would pray for the requests 8:30-9:00 am, then group 2 would move in and pray for the requests 9:00-9:30 am. This would obviously take quite a bit of organization as well as commitment, but I think it can definately be done.

These are just some ideas. Tell me what you guys think, or if you guys have any other ideas, just spout them out.

[Hephzibah]

I like those ideas, but I think idea 3 will be a fair bit of time away. I think a mixture of 1 and 2 would work best, where groups are assigned a few prayer requests as well as whichever they feel led to pray for. We'll have to make the groups organised, however, which I think will be the major difficulty.
Also, how many do you think should be in one group? 3? 4? however many want to be? However many there are, I think it is a good idea to get them to designate a leader who will get the requests and tell the others. That way we could have a leader meeting if necessary or something like that.

[Anna Mae]

1. We could have the leadership assign members of the group to pray for specific requests. The pros of this is that the prayer would be pretty evenly distributed. The major con that I can think of would be that people might feel burdened to pray for different people than they are assigned to, although I'm sure nobody would complain, since the group's sole purpose is to pray for others.

This seems like it would work, and would probably not be as difficult to organize as some other ideas might be.

2. We could have the members pray for people as they feel led. The pro to this is that people would probably focus on the more urgent requests that need more prayer in the first place. The con would be that some requests may be neglected.

This would be a good exercise in trusting the Lord’s leading.

I was thinking of having at least one person, or group of people, praying for people every day of the week. For instance, group 1, or person 1 would be assigned a certain day to pray that they could commit. Not to say that they couldn't pray for them the rest of the week, but just for the sake of commitment. The next day, group 2, or person 2 would move in and pray for the requests.

I think that this is a good idea. What if we would assign each group a certain person (or a few people) to pray for each day? Each group would have a different schedule, so everyone would be getting prayer every day. I also do better at remembering things when I have something to do daily. I’m not sure if that is what you meant, but this is another idea. Of course people could pray as they felt led, too...

Another thing we might do in the future, if the group gets big, is having groups assigned to specific times of the day. For instance, group 1 would pray for the requests 8:30-9:00 am, then group 2 would move in and pray for the requests 9:00-9:30 am. This would obviously take quite a bit of organization as well as commitment, but I think it can definitely be done.

I think that this would be a great idea also. That way they would be getting prayer pretty much constantly.

I think that this is such a great idea in general. Thank you, Jesus!

[Hephzibah]

I hope this gets up and running soon...
Ok! Since we have done what we can so far, how bout we decide a name? I vote for either Prayer Warriors or Prayer Guardians

[Syreth]

I like prayer guardians. It sounds a bit more original, although both names would be good.

[Anna Mae]

Either one is fine with me, but I think I am leaning more toward the guardian one also.

[Hephzibah]

Nifty
Before we start this group, I think we should all pray very hard about it, and maybe if you feel led to fast something. This is, after all, a very big thing and if we actually do start it, it would be best to start in the best possible way... ie having peace about it and knowing that God has given us this task to do.

[CreatureArt]

I like Prayer Guardians also - I'd like to join, too, if that's all right.

1) I was wondering about those who wanted to pray but couldn't or didn't want to be involved in a group situation. How about an abbreviated prayer list? For example:

Please pray:

(Username) would feel and be closer to God
(Username) would be strengthened as (he/she) talks to their friend about Jesus


People could print it out and have it with them in their daily prayer times, etc. Might also be useful for the Prayer Guardians/Warriors. Perhaps it could be put in it's own thread and updated?

2) Also - would it be possible to start a thread with tips on prayer? Good practical tips; maybe like finding a quiet place to pray and then more spiritual ones like biblical praying and all that. Perhaps there is already a thread like that?

3) Accountability and support? Say if one person or group is faced with a problem they don't feel equipped to handle; who can they go to? I don't expect that there are going to be constant problems, just a solution if things get a bit difficult.

I still think it's an awesome idea to get regular people praying regularly in the CAA . (PS: Hope you don't mind me blatantly stealing your numbering method to organise ideas, Syreth. It just seemed to make this long post a bit more readable. ).

God bless.

[Hephzibah]

I like Prayer Guardians also - I'd like to join, too, if that's all right.

That's great! The more the merrier! ]
1) I was wondering about those who wanted to pray but couldn't or didn't want to be involved in a group situation. How about an abbreviated prayer list? For example:

Please pray:

(Username) would feel and be closer to God
(Username) would be strengthened as (he/she) talks to their friend about Jesus


People could print it out and have it with them in their daily prayer times, etc. Might also be useful for the Prayer Guardians/Warriors. Perhaps it could be put in it's own thread and updated? [/QUOTE]
I think it will be necessary to have a thread dedicated to the requests. Someone can be put in charge of that, as well as any updates that happen in those requests.
As for not being a part of a group... I think it is important to have a group type setting (when two or more gather in My Name...), however, if a person doesn't feel comfortable with it we can't force them, and it will be better to have them praying alone then not at all.

2) Also - would it be possible to start a thread with tips on prayer? Good practical tips; maybe like finding a quiet place to pray and then more spiritual ones like biblical praying and all that. Perhaps there is already a thread like that?

I think any tips would be very very appreciated. I can ask my mum for a few tips (she is an intecessor)

3) Accountability and support? Say if one person or group is faced with a problem they don't feel equipped to handle; who can they go to? I don't expect that there are going to be constant problems, just a solution if things get a bit difficult.

Setting up a main leadership team will be vital, and if people have a problem they can PM them.

I still think it's an awesome idea to get regular people praying regularly in the CAA .

It will help alot, I think, if done right. Who knows, we might see more people being led to the Lord through here But, if the least we do is help a fellow sibling in Christ by providing a shoulder to cry on, it will be worth it

[Anna Mae]

Has anyone else here read Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets? I am reading it now, and have found it quite insightful.

[Kisa]

Yes I can say this as well. Especially at my school. Its weird, it just seems dark and like someone is watching all the time. My roomies friend felt something and prayed by our dorm one day cause of it.... Even when we are in the room it feels like someone is in there with us..... All of us have also had hard times sleeping and my roomie has had horrible dreams. I think our school is under attack spiritually.....

[Syreth]

If I might suggest something, I think it might be a good idea to get on a first name basis with the people who have more urgent requests that are comfortable with this. Not to sound like a creep, like we're invading privacy or anything, but it just seems more natural to pray using someone's real name rather than something like, "superanimeman123." I think it might help whoever is praying for them to remember that they're praying for a real person too, and not just something on a computer screen. I suppose this might just be my personal preference too. Whenever I pray for someone, if I know their real name, I tend to use it.

[CreatureArt]

If I might suggest something, I think it might be a good idea to get on a first name basis with the people who have more urgent requests that are comfortable with this.

I agree - it more it seem a bit easier and more natural while praying. But I agree with the term that the person is comfortable about it.

Has anyone else here read Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets? I am reading it now, and have found it quite insightful.

I think I've heard of the book before, but haven't read it myself.

Going back to the idea of a Prayer Tips thread.... how about posting helpful bits from good books on prayer that people have - especially the bible? Perhaps real-life experiences people have had, also. However... stories that have a solution or message that is useful could be more helpful than 'ghost stories'?...

I can ask my mum for a few tips (she is an intecessor)

My Mother is an intercessor, too! I can ask her for tips as well - good idea.

[Hephzibah]

My Mother is an intercessor, too! I can ask her for tips as well - good idea.

O.O

MY LONG LOST SISTER!!! (my mum was from NZ ) lol

Has anyone else here read Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets? I am reading it now, and have found it quite insightful.

No, but my mum has TONNES of prayer warrior type books lying around. Strewth, mum are handy aren't they?

Yes I can say this as well. Especially at my school. Its weird, it just seems dark and like someone is watching all the time. My roomies friend felt something and prayed by our dorm one day cause of it.... Even when we are in the room it feels like someone is in there with us..... All of us have also had hard times sleeping and my roomie has had horrible dreams. I think our school is under attack spiritually.....

Hmmm. Is your school are Christian school? Are most of the people there Christian? A thought that popped up into my head when I first read that is that maybe one of the students there isn't, and might be into witchcraft stype stuff.
But then, maybe I've read too much Frank Peretti In any case, we'll pray for you


--------------------------------
Ok, I've talked to my mum, and she said a simple way of praying is ACTS:

A - Adoration; express your love for the Lord
C - Confession; Be honest with God
T - Thanksgiving; Remember to thank Him, not only for the good times but also for the bad
S - Supplication (prayer); for yourself or for others.

O, she also gave me this link for fasting:
http://www.ppn.org.au/resources.html
I found it very helpful



Edit x2
I was searching online, and I found this:
http://www.ficm.org/questions/index.html
It has a few questions that might come up, and one particular that I want to point out:
Why Confess to Another person?
I think it would be good if we encourage the people being prayed for to confess to someone close to them their troubles or sins. Do you guys think this is a good idea?

[Hephzibah]

It is my great pleasure to announce that Prayer Guardians has been Mod-Approved!!! Hallelujah!


Here is the PM that Ash sent me:

[quote="Ashley"]Anyway, I wanted to tell you with great pleasure that the staff of CAA has agreed to let you create your group...provided you follow one condition. You and your prayer warriors take your responsibilities seriously]

I agree with her wholeheartedly on this point. I propose that we get a document written up sometime soon witha s hort list of rules. Nothing restrictive of prayer but teaching people our stance on prayer / fasting, as well as what Prayer Guardians is all about.

[Anna Mae]

Sounds like a plan.

[Hephzibah]

Alright... I think after we come up with a set of guidelines, we should make a big announcement asking for members to join.

How bout these for a few guidelines / suggestions (no particular order):

- Don't put others down. It is easy to condemn but not so easy to build others up, which is what we are aiming to do
- Write down prayer requests so you dont forget to pray (<- suggestion)
- Remember that you are ambassadors for Christ (treat others with respect; dont swear; try not to get into arguments...)
- Dont be afraid to fast if you feel led
- If you say 'I'll pray for you", mean it


Are these alright for starters? Do you think that we should make the requirement for joining PGs 'You have to have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour'?

[Syreth]

Those all sound great. Perhaps we could even have a fasting day once a month or so for the people who want to and who can.

I was wondering how you wanted to handle the membership. Were you thinking of joining up everyone who wanted to, or keeping an eye out for the people who appear to be faithful to pray for others? I think the simple joining requirement is a good idea. With something like this, it should be easy to tell who is going to be faithfully involved and who is not.

It's interesting that your mother prays ACTS. That's the basic form of our wednesday night service at our church. We have corporate prayer times after some teaching on the scripture of the night. I think that's a good idea generator for prayer.

[Hephzibah]

Perhaps we could even have a fasting day once a month or so for the people who want to and who can.

That's a good idea. Each month we could have a specific thing for people to pray for that day, eg for the leaders for CAA, for those battling depression...

I was wondering how you wanted to handle the membership. Were you thinking of joining up everyone who wanted to, or keeping an eye out for the people who appear to be faithful to pray for others? I think the simple joining requirement is a good idea. With something like this, it should be easy to tell who is going to be faithfully involved and who is not.

I am willing to try out the first option, but if we have problems like them spamming in the prayer forum we can either ask them to shapen up or to leave the group.

It's interesting that your mother prays ACTS. That's the basic form of our wednesday night service at our church. We have corporate prayer times after some teaching on the scripture of the night. I think that's a good idea generator for prayer.

That's just her very basic outline for me. She normally prays in tongues most of the day.

Ok, when shall we make the announcement? Are we ready now, or does anyone have any more suggestions / comments?

[Anna Mae]

Things sound fine to me.

[CreatureArt]

I also agree wholeheartedly with the idea to fast once a month - if it goes well, perhaps it could be more often for those who feel able to, or for those who are led, more often.
Perhaps there could be a separate thread for guidelines/suggestions and another for prayer requests.

You mentioned that your Mom prays in tongues - is it all right for those who are able to do so as they pray?

I also think that Ashley's condition of taking it seriously is a very important one. If we say we pray, we do. That follows scripture: 'let your yes be yes...' Anyone know the Book/Chapter/Verse for that one? I'm pretty sure it's in one of the Gospels...

Are we able to do a sum up of what's been decided so far? I'm getting slightly confused reading through the pages of this thread - but that might be because I'm not very well today.

Actually - it's probably a good encouraging thing to mention that I was feeling TERRIBLE, so sick and sore and I felt like I couldn't handle it. I prayed to God - just said, "Jesus, please help," and within a minute I just had my head on my knee and the pain and sickness had reduced to a much lower, more tolerable level. Praise God. We know he answers prayer, but that's just another example of his kindness.

Your Mum is a kiwi and an intercessor, Talame? That's awesome.