Tag Archives: North Carolina

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; H.L.M.- Wonder of Prayer

Leave a comment

 

Eighty years ago, some businessmen gathered at W. Frank Graham’s dairy farm for a prayer meeting. They had met several times at different locations around Charlotte, North Carolina to pray for revival in their city, across their state and to the ends of the Earth. That particular day, one man suggested they pray that God would raise up someone from Charlotte to spread the gospel to the world.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

I Timothy 2:1

At that moment, 15-year-old Billy Graham was in the barn doing his chores. None of the men who prayed were thinking of young Billy, who had not yet even given his heart to Jesus Christ. Of course, God answered that prayer in an unimaginable way. Graham later said, “A mystery and wonder of prayer is that God often waits until someone asks.”

Commit to boldly pray for those in your city and this nation to discover a relationship with the Lord this year. Then ask God for a fresh anointing of His Spirit upon all Christian leaders in America. Your prayers will make a powerful difference!

Recommended Reading: Mark 11:15-24

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Fruit, More Fruit, Much Fruit

1 Comment

 

John 15:8,16

I lived for a while in the mountains of North Carolina, in a place that was known as Fruitland. The area got that name because it was—and still is—apple country. I once went to visit a member of my church there, and his wife told me he was out in the orchard, pruning trees. So I walked out to watch. Not knowing any better, I said, “Man, you’re going to kill that tree.” He turned to look at me and said, “You stick to preaching. I’ll take care of the pruning.”

Later I learned that in order to produce a good crop, the tree branches had to be pruned. It’s a lesson I have never forgotten, because it also applies to our spiritual lives. Sometimes we argue with God when bad times hit and we are hurting. We assume He must not love us if He would allow such painful things to happen. But what the Lord is actually doing is pruning us so that we will bear quality fruit; then He prunes us again for more fruit, and finally He prunes us for much fruit. If a branch continues to grow without being cut back, lots of little shoots will emerge from it and draw away the sap’s life-giving sustenance.

Little things in life can be like those shoots, thwarting our fruitfulness: Sometimes we allow our kindness to depend on how we feel when we wake up in the morning; we might let a bad habit develop; or perhaps we allow our peace to get wrapped up in our circumstances. But if we accept God’s pruning with the proper attitude, the Holy Spirit’s sap will nurture the fruit in our life.