How often to pray for other believers? What do we pray for other believers?

For a long while now, I have felt somewhat inadequate in my prayers for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want the family of God to be blessed and strengthened and helped… but what should I actually be asking God for when praying for them? I end up asking God to “bless them” and “help them,” especially when I don’t have any other specific needs I know about for these individuals whom God has placed in my sphere of influence. Of course there is great truth in “The Holy Spirit making intercession for (through) us, with groanings that cannot be uttered,” however, Jesus also instructed his followers to ask, and ask specifically.

I have also noticed this deficiency when praying together with my two young boys for a variety of other children (we take turns praying for the different children we know) – and that has proved the most challenging. How can I teach my own boys how to properly pray for others when I myself lack the right words? As it turns out, the scriptures have more than enough information on this subject within the epistles alone to give the believer the right direction they need when praying for the saints…

First of all, the most common greeting and prayer that the New Testament writers made known to their audience is that “grace and peace” would be given to them continually. Grace from God to help them at all times. Peace to keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This request is mentioned so often and so consistently, that listing these verses would be pointless and repetitive. May the reader understand that this prayer, being so consistent in the epistles, might be the most important and most potent prayer we can pray for others in the body of Christ. Grace and peace continually.

Having that said, I have broken down the following scriptures into two categories:

1. Prayers for the Saints Everywhere

2. Prayers for the Apostolic Church Planters

The meat of this study is simply listing these excerpts below for the parousal of the reader. From simply reading through these verses from the epistles, a clear pattern becomes evident in their prayer requests for the saints. All excerpts below are from the NLT version of the Bible for simplicity of theme in this study. I have underlined what I have noticed are some common themes in these passages especially worth noticing.

Prayers for the Saints Everywhere:

Romans – So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1 - Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

Asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.

Colossians 1 – We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you.

We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, We ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need.

Epaphras, from your city, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident of the whole will of God. I can assure you that he has agonized for you and also for the Christians in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Galatians 1 – Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. I always pray for you, and I make my requests with a heart full of joy

I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.

1 Corinthians – I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians – We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly.

As we talk to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and your continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

2 Thessalonians – We keep on praying for you, that our God will make you worthy of the life to which he called you.

And we pray that God, by his power, will fulfill all your good intentions and faithful deeds.

May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.

Prayers for the Apostolic Church Planters:

Romans – Join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit. Pray that I will be rescued from those in Judea who refuse to obey God. Pray also that the Christians there will be willing to accept the donation I am bringing them. Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a happy heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other.

2 Thessalonians – I ask you to pray for us. Pray first that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people, for not everyone believes in the Lord.

One brief observation to start, before summarizing a few of the main themes in these passages. It is telling to note that all the prayer requests the writers mentioned were for the spiritual well being of the saints. No prayer requests are mentioned in any of these passages for the physical or material blessing of the saints. This is not to suggest that they never prayed for these things, or that these things were unimportant in the lives of the saints – however one thing seems certain notwithstanding: if the material well-being of the saints was not mentioned once in any of the prayers listed in these passages, then it probably should not be the primary focus of our prayers for God’s people today, and it is not the main purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught about money and material possessions of course, but with the common theme of how unimportant these carnal concerns were in the light of God’s everlasting kingdom they were entering. The cry of the New Testament writers was solely for the spiritual health and growth of the saints of God everywhere.

Unceasing prayers offered: On the question of how often the New Testament leaders fathers prayed for the saints, it is clear that the writers strove unceasingly in prayer for the saints and churches they knew of. This they specifically stated in at least 5 different letters. Therefore first and foremost, consistent and continual prayers were offered up for the saints of God. This, it seems, was a foundational part of the apostles ministry to the churches. As they labored for the sake of the many churches they had planted, teaching and admonishing them to continue in the Lord, it was from a solid foundation of countless tears and prayers for them.

Giving thanks for the saints: It also is worth noting that thanking God for the wonderful work he had done and was doing in the churches and the saints is consistently recorded. Even when the writer had no immediate hand in planting a church, it is stated that he gave continual thanks to God for them when he heard about them.

That God would give them understanding: This is the most often repeated theme among all the verses listed above.

Prayers were that they would understand:

- the wonderful future he has promised to those he called & what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

- the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him

- what God wanted to do in their lives – the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.

- what really matters

The end result of understanding these different truths is also mentioned:

- so that they might grow in their knowledge of God

- so that the way they lived would always honor and please the Lord, and they would continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, they would learn to know God better and better

- so that they would then live pure and blameless lives

For me, this verifies the idea that all that Christ has provided for His saints is fully at their disposal from the moment of their new birth into the kingdom of God. Unlimited power, wisdom, grace, peace, help from the Father – all these things and a host of others had been given to the believer from day one. The growing and maturing process in the Lord subsequent to initial faith in Christ consisted primarily in understanding more and more what they already possessed! We as believers today already have the powers and wisdom and character of the world to come, but only in the very modest measures that we can understand and handle. It would seem that the work of the enemy then, would be primarily focused on hindering our understanding of the great kingdom power and life we have in Christ.

This could be compared to the son of a great king. If he has no understanding of the royal blood flowing through his veins, then he might be found living as a pauper in the ghettos of the city. However, when he realizes who he is – what royal bloodline flows through his veins, what royal seal hangs upon his finger, the great authority in the name he bears – he will soon move into the castle with the king, begin exercising his royal authority, begin seeking justice for the weak and powerless with confidence, and begin driving out the enemy from his lands without fear.

What would happen if we truly understood what we have at our disposal! If only we would understand the reality of the eternal life we have been given! If only we would truly grasp the unlimited power we have through the Holy Spirit! If only we would begin to understand what God’s ultimate maturing work is aimed at – in each of our lives and hearts. We would begin exercising our God-given authority with confidence and soundness of mind, and resting at all times in the patient work He is doing in us.

Make them holy & complete: Another common theme was the perfection (completeness) of the saints. That God would make them worthy of the wonderful life he’d given them, make them holy in every way, that they would live pure and blameless lives, that the way they would live would always honor and please the Lord, and that they would do good kind things for others. The maturity of character (holiness) and a completeness of good works (love) of each saint seems to be the major end purpose of the gospel of God for his people while they are on this earth – and the NT writers seemed to verify this, always praying that the churches and the saints would eventually become complete in all that they were lacking, as they grew in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Other specific prayers are mentioned in these passages which may be just as important to take note of when praying for the saints, but for now I have only taken the time to cover the major patterns in these verses. I pray that this brief study may give the saints of God everywhere the right tools for what to pray and how to pray for other brothers and sisters! May the people of God labor in prayer for all people, especially for the saints of God everywhere!

—With a lot of love, Sean Hyatt (Aurora)

Stapleton is a growing neighborhood in Denver, built on the former site of our airport. As you walk through the open air malls, there are young trees in the middle of large circles of soil. Three metal stakes surround the base, and strands from each stake connect to the diminutive trunk. Though the tree is young and no more than 8 feet tall, it is obvious what Stapleton intends for these saplings to become. Tall, strong trees providing shade in the summer, and beauty throughout the year.

Imagine now this same setting…a large circle of soil, three metal stakes, three strands…connected to a seedling about one foot tall. A bit odd you might say? Not only that, but the seedling would either be ripped out of the ground or choked to death. These growing organisms benefit from support that is designed for their stage in the life cycle of a tree.

In our church network, Ancient Paths Church, we have begun to multiply churches into several neighborhoods in Denver. As we grow, our need for support also has grown. We have begun a monthly leadership meeting for house church leaders and shepherds to share God stories, encourage one another, share church family needs, and share lessons learned. With almost a half dozen churches in existence or starting soon, there were about 15 people in the room. This monthly meeting will be essential for us to stay connected, encouraged, and focused.

In Colorado at large, we have begun to gather together from across the state to accomplish similar goals. Previous posts here on this website talk about the blessing it has been to share our challenges, blessings, and lessons learned. in the past months, opportunities have also begun to arise for training through several of the church networks. It has seemed good to the Spirit and to many of us involved in leading networks to begin praying about how we can grow churches, disciples, and leaders tall and strong.

All of this has happened….quite organically. As the need has arisen, the Head of the church has placed it upon the heart of individuals to exercise their gifts for the benefit of the church.

It is far too easy too look for hard and fast models. “If you want a healthy church network have 1 local leadership meeting each month with 3 leaders from each church, 6 community gatherings per year, attend 2 national conferences, read 8 books…” Too many of us have experienced the fruitlessness of building a house in vain, where the Lord has not been the builder. It is also seductive when experiencing growth to take too much credit for that growth. It is true that the skilled gardener deserves her due, but also the One who provided the sun, rain, seed, soil, and fertilizer.

Are you looking for wisdom in how to grow your church sapling into a tall, strong tree? The Lord knows better than any other the condition of the soil and those seeds that grow best. He knows the gifts His Spirit has given to the members of the body, and following His lead will provide the best context for those gifts to thrive.

Pray for wisdom to know what supports your community needs. If you don’t see those supports available, perhaps you are the one to begin praying for them, and initiate offering them to others!

Do you have training opportunities or support ideas gained from your church networks? Leave a comment to this post and share how God is working.

I recently posted this on my personal blog and thought it would be good to share here. ~Rose Starr

Some of you may know that we are a part of a house church network. Desi, my husband is a pastor/house church coach/mentor here in Denver. We have had a very interesting journey these past 4+ years in this lovely city. We came out as inner city missionaries to start a traditional church. After meeting in our home weekly for awhile (doing house church but not calling it that!) we ended up being given a large donation from an anonymous donor and began renting a small chapel. Although we had a sizable core group, we didn’t grow. We moved to another location and again did not grow. I struggled with not enjoying Sundays at all. It was so much work to haul tub after tub of stuff only to go through these church motions and then have to clean up again. We moved to another location and started meeting on Sunday nights. Again, no growth…people left instead! It was discouraging. We felt like we were wasting God’s resources and after much prayer and about 6 months at that location we went back to Sunday mornings at a house.

We decided to pray and seek God and His will for our group which had grown and shrunk and grown again with people leaving and God bringing us together with another small group. Turns out we had the same vision and heart for the city as this other group who joined up with us before we moved to Sunday nights renting space at a local church. Desi and Bruce (his ministry partner) along with Carrie (another inner city missionary) began to meet/pray regularly and in earnest. I’m not sure how, but we heard of a large house church conference that would be in Denver that summer that was put on by House 2 House. We felt led to go and wouldn’t you know it, that was our start into house church gatherings. We had a lot of ‘traditional mindset’ to re-think as we searched the Scriptures to see what ‘church’ was really about. We discovered some simple and profound things: That were two or more are gathered in His name, He’s there and really that is church…the believers…we are His bride…the church is people and when we are together, we are doing church! Now this may be too liberal a definition for some folks, and that’s ok, but we love it!

Our group met on Sunday mornings at one house for about a year, getting used to being a part of something so different than most of us had been a part of. We began to minister to one another in beautiful ways. We used resources to give to the needy in our own group as well as in the city. We grew in friendship, love and life. We saw some leave and many more come. We joined up with large traditional churches for outreaches and VBS’ in the summer. We prayed that God would send laborers for the harvest and He did! Story after story of how He grew us and brought new people. I love it! Near the end of last year, we realized our core group was getting too large for the house we met in. We all began to pray and ask God to lead us, to move in our hearts and give us a desire to multiply in order to grow and continue to make disciples.

Since then, we have grown into a network of five house churches. One meets Sunday morning, two on Sunday nights (alternating between two houses), one Tuesday night and one Thursday night. Each church looks and feels a bit different, but each is active, alive, nurturing and growing. Desi and I are hosting every 2nd & 4th Sunday evening partnering with another couple who live about a mile from us who host the 1st and 3rd Sundays at their house. It’s nice to start off just every other week and share the hosting and cooking. At our Sunday evening gatherings we share a meal at 5:30 and have our gathering after the meal. Our first gathering was last Sunday. I felt led to have us do an activity I found in a book about Lent for kids. It was a family tree where we all drew/cut out a symbol with our name to represent our branch. We then wrote on leaves qualities that we saw in others that were a blessing and glued the leaves to their branches. It was a wonderful way to start off our gathering and include our 4 kids. We then moved into a time of sharing while we sipped tea and after a little while the kids retired to the basement for a movie. We adults continued to share and fellowship till almost 11pm!

Here’s our Family Tree

Our gatherings will be a bit ‘loose’ as we seek to listen to the Spirit’s leading. Our desire is to encourage spiritual gifts and give place and time for those gifts to be shared. We want to come together with something learned from the week that we can offer to each other. We desire transparency, honesty, respect, to honor one another and to grow in relationship with our father God. We will invite neighbors, friends and whomever God leads us to with no expectations other than to see what God has for us.

Our network will plan regular large gatherings, outings, trips, parties, outreaches, celebrations, ect…in order to stay connected with one another. Desi and I will host a game night once a month with the invite open to all the house churches and our neighbors. We are praying about various VBS’ put on the the various house church homes/neighborhoods for this summer to reach kids and neighbors with God’s love.

I wanted to share what we were doing and how blessed I am to be a part of something that has helped me grow in my spiritual walk more than ever before. I have been challenged to be an active participant in every meeting. To be open to different views, different people, different ways of interacting with God. We still have much to learn, will probably make mistakes, will start something- realize it doesn’t work- and change our plans, and that’s ok! I have so much to learn as a daughter, wife, mother, friend and neighbor. I am learning to be ok with the process, to enjoy the journey, to see events in my life as a small piece of a much larger picture, to see God’s hand of grace in every aspect of my daily life. It’s mind boggling really.

~Rose

Thanks to a collaborative effort, here are photos I took from last Saturday evening. Click on “show as slideshow” to enjoy a slideshow or click on a single thumbnail to see it larger.

I really enjoyed bringing our dinner to have a time of fellowship to start things off. Everything from the wonderful times of worship, to breaking up into discussion groups to drawing our thoughts on paper and having a time for people to share was tremendous. I have been blessed to be stretched in my journey of following God the past few years. Going from traditional mega church in CA, to struggling to plant a church here in Denver to discovering that God was leading us to house church, Desi and I sure have learned a lot. I think one of the most beneficial things for me has been to be open to the unfamiliar, different or unknown. It’s been amazing to see that when I am open, these differences (whatever they may be) have been catalysts for my personal growth. I love to hear people share their story…their struggles, questions, answered prayers…what God is doing in their lives. It’s times like these gatherings that show me how much BIGGER the world (and God for that matter) truly are. Thank you to all who participated and made this gathering come together for a second time. I look forward to the next one!

~Rose

p.s. thanks Brian for helping me get these photos up and doing so much for this website

Last year, my network of churches in Lakewood began meeting every 8 weeks with a network from Golden for mutual encouragement and celebration. More recently, we have begun meeting with the leaders of networks in central and east Denver. Out of this flowed a combined Celebration on October 20th which included worship, sharing and vision casting for our city. It was a packed night and some people were standing for over two hours as people shared from house churches all over Denver Metro. We had people all the way from the Black Forest area in the south to Ft. Collins in the north. There were over 100 people from at least 20 different house churches.

This is just wild, not only how many there are and how we are connecting and but the spontaneous growth that is happening among them. There was an excitement of the growing numbers of HC’s… guessing 70 or more in the Denver area. For the next gathering we may need to get a room about 4 times the size. There is a new website and we are trying to get all the house churches on the map. www.coloradohousechurch.com

Our vision of a house church within walking distance of every person in Golden/Lakewood… Denver ….Colorado… North America… is beginning to spread.

Does that make you want to be part of a HC …and the HC movement… and then join to help and/or start one after that?

Living for so much more and it is too exciting,

Jan Cowles
Lakewood, Colorado

jancowles[AT]comcast.net

In Luke 10:2b, we are commanded “Pray that the Lord of harvest would send out laborers into his harvest field.” There is a Luke 10:2b virus going around. People are pairing up to pray this prayer daily and some have reported seeing answers weekly. After praying Luke 10:2b almost every day over the phone for a year with Randy, a friend from Indy, we have begun to see some fruit in the Denver metro area in the last several months. The passage about the patient farmer waiting for the crops to come (James 5) rebukes me. I had begun to wonder if God was hearing our daily persistent knocking. Now I am wondering if the trickle of what is happening is a prequel to what could become a flow … yikes …a flood.

In late spring, my main church planting partner, Dan Thoemke, and I began to see about one new house church starting every month. As of late, this is increasing in our part of the western subs of Denver. Recently, three new churches have started in the Green Mountain area. Two of them are big enough to make two or three more house churches. This kind of growth is coming sooner than we expected because our focus has been on carefully growing healthy churches with a strong DNA that will grow other healthy churches.

There are many more thrilling stories. One brother, who I have been meeting with for the last couple of months, has four new believers who are reaching out to their unchurched friends. Three of them are starting at least one house church in the next month. These include a former gang leader and other another gang member. Several new believers are beginning house churches from Dan Thoemke’s network. A YWAM student (Youth With A Mission) will be coaching these new believers as he is seeking to start a church in Idaho Springs.

Not only are new churches being started with new believers. We are also discovering existing networks in different places that have the same vision. Just this week we connected with a network of house churches in Boulder. We all came away pumped. With our vision already expanding for Denver, we were blown way at all that God was doing in Boulder already.

Jan