Praying For The Sunday Worship Service (Zacharias T. Fomum)

The local church is born in prayer. Any local assembly that has no vital prayer life has forfeited the reason for its existence and will soon become part of the bride of the anti-Christ, which is an organized religious system that knows not the power of the Lord.

Below is an outline of some of the meetings and ministries of the local assembly in Yaounde. In the pages that follow are suggestions on how to pray for each of these meetings. In chapter 14, we have included prayer requests for each place where a small assembly now exists, being mothered from Yaounde and places with a handful of disciples, but where no proper local assembly yet exists. The associated ministries – Voice of the Gospel and the Christian Centre – are ministries and planned ministries (respectively) that have the whole Body of Christ irrespective of colour, language, tribe, denomination, and nationality, in view.

BEFORE THE MEETING

1. Lord, grant that each believer should take some time alone before You during the week in order to prepare for the service.

2. Lord, enable each one of Your children to get to the meeting-place in time.

3. Lord, grant a spirit of expectancy to Your children as they come to the meeting. May their expectation be to meet You in a new way each time.

DURING THE SERVICE

General

1. Lord, O that Your presence and glory would fill the place so much that each believer would be ministered unto as soon as he enters the meeting-place. Lord, may your presence lift off any burdens and take away any loneliness or discouragement.

2. Lord, pour upon the assembly a mighty Spirit of joy, worship, and adoration.

3. Father, grant that there should be a continuous flow of life from each believer throughout the meeting.

4. Lord, grant that the fellowship during the worship service should be such that it provokes an increasing yearning and longing for You.

The Leader

1. Ask the Lord to grant him a good time of preparation during the week in prayer, fasting, and waiting.

2. Pray that the Lord should guide him in preparing the programme.

3. Ask the Lord to grant him the spiritual ability to minister life as he leads.

4. Ask the Lord that, he be so close to Him that His Holy Spirit will control the meeting through his spirit.

5. Ask the Lord to lead him in the choice of songs and the person to lead each song so that the singing would minister to You and Your body.

6. Ask the Lord to help him to apportion the time rightly to each part of the service.

The Minister of the Word

1. Pray that he should receive a message from the Lord through the Word.

2. Ask the Lord to meet him during his time of preparation and minister to him so that he will come to the people out of the presence of the Lord.

3. Ask that he should be pure and clean so that the thoughts of God will flow through him unhindered and uncontaminated.

4. Ask the Lord to give him the right words and expressions with which to communicate the message so that it will come forth clear and simple to understand.

5. Ask the Lord to guide him so that he should know where to lay the emphasis in his preaching.

6. Ask the Lord to enable him to discharge the whole burden that the Holy Spirit put on him for that meeting by the time that the message is over.

7. Ask that the Lord should cleanse him after he has preached, humble him, refill him, and use him in future for His glory.

The Translator

1. Pray that he should find time to meet the Lord in prayer and meditation before the service.

2. Ask the Lord to make him into a vessel through which the thoughts of God can flow unhindered and uncontaminated.

3. Ask the Lord that he should be in the same spirit as the leader and minister of the Word.

4. Pray that he should be enabled to understand the preacher and communicate his thoughts unhindered in any way.

5. Ask the Lord to grant to him the exact words that he needs to carry the message across.

6. Ask the Lord to minister to him as he ministers to others, so that he will go away fulfilled and rejoicing.

Sharing

1. Ask the Lord to grant to the Body of His Son a Spirit-controlled time of sharing when the saints share the light and revelations that they have received from the Lord during the week from the Word.

2. Pray that the sharing should be such that it stirs the believers to seek the Lord in an increasing way.

3. Ask the Lord to discipline each saint to spend time with Him in the Word every day of the week so that there will always be a flow of things to share each time that the opportunity arises.

4. Ask the Lord for a spirit of openness to share and receive material needs.

Testimonies

• Pray for each testimony to result from a desire to glorify the eternal Father and that there will be no room for self-exhibition or self-glorification.

• Ask the Lord to touch each one testifying to speak only the truth and all the testimonies will be to the point, Christ-centered, and that the body will be edified through them.

Breaking of Bread

1. Lord, let Your presence be felt afresh as bread is broken so that there will be no spirit of routine about it at all.

2. Lord, grant that as each believer touches the bread he should touch the Lord afresh and be satisfied in Him.

3. Lord, heal any believers who are sick during the breaking of bread, for by Your stripes we were healed.

4. Lord, grant each believer to partake with a joyful and grateful heart.

5. Lord, grant Your children a sense of assurance of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life as they drink the cup.

6. Father, take away an unforgiving heart from Your children as they touch the cup of the blood of the new covenant.

7. Lord, open the eyes of all Your children thus assembled to see in a new way the glory of the Lord Jesus crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, ascended, enthroned, and soon coming, and that this seeing will lead to a holy and consecrated walk with You.

AFTER THE SERVICE

1. Lord, may the joy of having been in Your presence accompany your children as they go away from the meeting-place.

2. Lord, forbid it that they should go away from Your presence as they leave the meeting-place.

3. Lord, guard the truths that You taught them so that the wicked one will not come and snatch them before they have taken root in Your children and borne fruit for Your coming glory.

4. Lord, as Your children go to live before a watching world, grant that their light should so shine before men that they will see their good works and give glory to Your Holy name.

5. Lord, may the products of such lives become members of the local body of believers so that each meeting day, there will be those whom You have just added to be received and loved by the Church. Amen.