Melody Divine | How to Organize an Online Prayer Movement
1:16PM Jul 9, +0000
Speakers:
Jonathan J. Armstrong
Liz Adleta
Jason Hubbard
Keywords:
prayer
praying
people
lord
god
testimonies
room
days
melody
california
zoom
connect
global
leaders
nation
jonathan
groups
intercessor
important
unity
Today we are extremely thankful to be hearing from melody divine melody divine is going to be presenting on how to organize an online prayer movement. Melody divine comes to us with a BA degree in sociology and urban studies from Wheaton College. She has a JD degree from the University of Denver, the Sturm College of Law. And she has been an avid organizer in the global family prayer room, and also the California prayer force prayer room. Melody we're so grateful to learn from you today.
Thank you. And I just want to say it is such an honor to be here with you today, we're, I'm grateful to the Aqua doc project, and for your partnership in making so many of the programs that I'm going to share about today possible. So thank you for making it possible. And your partnership, Jonathan, in particular, just as we begin my prayer room reflections, I'll just share a brief personal background. And then I have a tale of 2020, a tale of five prayer rooms, to kind of just take you through the experience. And then some thoughts on best practices. And then as far as best practices, the panel that you have assembled here today is truly a representation of all that is good in pure room facilitation and building. So I really look forward to hearing their input instantly when I highlight that they have been deeply instrumental in the story that I'm about to tell. And it just warms my heart to see my brothers and sisters here joining in this important discussion. So So why are we even having this discussion, I mean, prayer rooms matter to God. And what we do in the prayer room, is we lift up Jesus, we lift up Jesus and exalt his completed work. And so as we lift him up, he is drawing all men to himself. And in the parent room, in doing that purification takes place, consecration takes place, it's really a place of surrendering ourselves, and our will completely to His will. So we are surrendering our mouth, really to pray his words in his in the Bible, the Scripture and to claim his promises. And in doing that, we're also seeking for his kingdom to come on earth as it isn't happen. And we're advancing the fine linen, which are the righteous works of the saints. And in doing that, ultimately, the bride is being made ready for his return. So, as you know, prayer and mission are fundamentally related. You cannot do one without the other and every believer is called to both. So many of you know, and I've heard the intercession leads to mission like radiance. But I am an example of how mission led to intercession. So, while practicing commercial litigation in Colorado, some of the pro bono work that I have gotten involved in, led me to work in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. And I was an advisor to a couple of different members of Congress at a couple different times. There's a 10 year space in between, but in the work that I did, as an advisor, foreign policy issues, national security issues, religious freedom, issues, life, anti human trafficking, the spiritual battle, was so present in the physical realm, that it was really clear how important prayer was to accomplishing anything. It was indispensable to achieving any success, to even knowing what was true to gaining wisdom for strategy to having favor with authorities and leaders until literally opening the doors of the present to those who are bound. So in this time, I believe that God is reconnecting prayer and mission and we're not simply asking for workers for the harvest, but we are also actually being prepared to Be those workers. And in addition to that the workers are coming into the prayer room. The prayer room is open to all believers, and especially people who would not have considered themselves intercessors. I'm one of those people. Last year at this time, I did not know a single other intercessor in California. And I prayed most of the time alone and silently. So the prayer room has really just exploded this opportunity for people to reconnect to really the heart of God. And so in everything that we do,
we need to be asking the Lord, what are you doing? And how can we partner with you? So it was really in asking that question that led to the five parents that I'm going to talk about today. So my story begins after Passover, and the Coronavirus, not ending. I you know, everything was still shut down. churches were shut down. I'm in California Governor Newsome banned worship. Multiple families are moving from California. And I was just at a point, right? Okay, God, what are you doing? What are you doing, Lord. And right after I prayed that prayer, I received an email from a friend. And in that email were two links. One was talking about the return. And the other one was for 10 days, Pentecost. And so I signed up for both I was really hungry, and the Lord promises Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be felt. In participating in 10 days, Pentecost, I was absolutely revived myself, I had a fresh wind, a fresh breath of fresh spirit, and fire really in my soul. When you sit at the Lord's feet, for 10 days, a holding his face and seeking his well surrendering yourself to Him, He meets you there. You want to spend time in his presence. And that's what we're seeing in all of the prayer rooms. When people come in, they want to linger in his presence. In the prayer room, the Lord also knit my heart to the other believers in the room, he gave me this beautiful family of believers that I would not have otherwise met this side of heaven. You know, we're praying together, seeking His kingdom. Also, every day, during 10 days, there was a teaching, and it was highlighting in many, many different ministries. And these ministries were reflecting the work of God and the heart of God, what he was doing on this earth. And in participating, you get to actually be a part of the work that the Lord is doing by by praying for those ministries, and you're seeing a reflection of the heart of God himself. So he filled me again, with the desire to see his kingdom work in the world. And in addition to this family, so what I had experienced in that 10 days was so good, that I wanted to share it with others. And I, you know, reached out to my small group Bible study, which was just a Thursday night Bible study, and I was just like, let's just meet on Tuesday nights for an hour and pray together. And that Tuesday night group is still continuing. So I just want to say to all of you who you know, are thinking, how would I do this, you know, and you're looking at global family, as you know, where you want to go, do not despise, you know, small beginnings for who has despise the day of small things Zachariah for time. So let me also just stay here why I think that zoom or virtual prayer room is so effective as a gathering space. We are all in our own homes. And yet, it's like we have a stranger believe her visitors like in our homes are like doing life together. Sometimes we're driving in each other's cars, or you know, we're seeing each other's children coming in or out. And it's like this level of vulnerability that was not reachable before. It's different than just going to, you know, a prayer meeting and in an anonymous space, like a church or a coffee shop or something like that, but we're actually in each other's homes and being vulnerable on a level level that creates a unity and a bond. So, how does something like how long does starting a prayer room take And, you know, the answer is it kind of depends. But just by way of example, I'm going to talk about 10 days California. So on July 21, I'm, Jonathan frizz, had a group of leaders that he knew. And we all just had a meeting. And that was seven days, or seven weeks, excuse me, before, you know, 10 days, the days of all in September was going to begin. And when you get people who, you know, group of people who don't know each other and have a lot of different ideas about something like this could work, it takes a little while to decide what you know what we're going to do, but
because of the situation in California, and because of my experience, attendees kind of cross I was just like, we should have a 24, seven Zoom Room for California. And it would just be so great. And credit to you know, those leaders and people, they're like, yeah, maybe maybe we could do that. And, you know, I just want to say the Lord did it. So, you know, the first time I met Jonathan Armstrong was about four weeks before the days of our 10 days. And so really, we started in earnest about three weeks before, but we were able to completely fill the schedule 24, seven Zoom Room, have people in there invite people in. And so I just want to say how faith, the Lord will do it, when you believe that he can do it, he will, and he'll just take your offerings, like the fish and the loaves, he is forever capable of what you bring to him and multiplying it. So on this also, these were our themes for 10 days, California, which were slightly different from, you know, the 10 days global, for example. So themes should be reflective of times and seasons and locations of where you are, and just trust the Lord. I remember kind of questioning God when he gave me the word deception, as a day to focus on a prayer. And I was just like, really, I've never seen that on any prayer focus or anything before. And it was, but it was really when we actually did it. It was, like, amazing how the Lord spoke in that day and time, also just the story of the Lord's goodness, the very first night, the very first hour of 10 days California, one woman was praying that we as a body of Christ would move from fear, to love. And she was just praying that we would move from fear, to love and she said, God shaped us. And in that exact moment, we had an earthquake, my house schuck. And it was just like, when you have something powerful like that happen, it just infuses fake into the prayer room. And so like, if you think that God can't move physically, and in a Zoom Room, he can, and he does. So, um, it was just really powerful, that Lord was hearing our prayers, and that he was going to do something amazing. And this is just the proof. The Washington Post, actually documented it magnitude 4.5 earthquake rattle Southern California. And what was really cool about this was the epicenter was El Monte, which is the mountain and the Lord use that actually, throughout this 10 days, we were praying into Exodus 2018, through 21. And now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled instead of far off, Moses said to the people, do not fear for God has come to test you, his fear maybe before you, so that you may not send enough people so far off, but Moses Jr, to the thick darkness where God was. So that's what we were doing. We were praying for the fear of the Lord, and to draw near to where God was. And I can talk about what it's like in the prayer room. But I wanted to share with you this clip as soon as that loads here of what it's really like in a prayer room, and you'll get a sense for it. And this is just another example of God's faithfulness. On the last day of 10 days on Yom Kippur. We received a word for California and this is a prayer leader delivering that word to us. That's right on.
On our leaders thread Wolfgang posted a word that he received from our friend Jerry Bowers, who lives in Texas now. And it was a word for California and within gave me permission to share it. So I'm going to release this. How beautiful as we finish out these 10 days that the Lord would send this word. He says a word for California. I have not had a word for California for many years. I'm submitting what I heard this morning, lightning and rain clouds. I saw clouds filled with lightning over California. In the natural lightning often precedes the rain. I heard the Lord say it's time to release the rain. The Lord has heard the people of California crying out in repentance. And he has seen your efforts to bring this repentance even to the nation's cry out for the rain clouds to release the rain, as did the prophet Elijah and First Kings 18. The Lord says I will come marching in the clouds of the south and defeat your enemies. Here is what the Lord says I will be seeing over the Golden State. My arrow will go forth like lightning. I will blow my trumpet over the state. And we'll march in the storm winds of the South Zachariah 914. So Father, we bring this word before you and Father we submit ourselves to will we submit California will to you. He will come to pass that with you.
So as you can see, being in the parent room is really powerful, and a holy thing. It birthed this desire and us to continue and to press on. And Leviticus 2685 of you shall choose 100 and 100 of you shall put 10,000 to flight, your enemy shall fall by the sword before you by harnessing the collective power of prayer and unifying and love. There, the Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore, Psalm 133. So that's really where we're coming from. And in addition to the prayer room itself, it's really important to equip. And so we provide a prayer focus, to not just the leaders to every single one who joins in that prayer room. And as mentioned before, more and more people are coming into the prayer room, and they don't consider themselves to be intercessors. So it's really just a way to teach people how to pray. And the idea is just to getting people before the Lord seeking his face, and, and being in His Word. And global family does this as well. So for all of the prayer rooms, it's just really important to have equipping, and teaching. So we also have teaching hours, equipping hours, there are training sessions for the prayer leaders, it's important to have gathering times together because as you're leading to the hours, you might not see somebody you know, who leaves three days ahead of you. But when you have a gathering time, a time to come together and see each other, then it grows that level of family. And also just a point of reaching out to the poor leaders and being a service to them. It's important to kind of have touches of encouragement, and that really needs to be led by the Holy Spirit. I remember the ninth day of 10 days, myself being kind of weary and you're wanting to kind of encourage people to keep on pressing on, you know, through this time of, of heavy intercession. And I wrote this email. Yesterday I was as I was getting ready to rejoin the zoom call, I was a bit weary and just asking the Lord to give me strength. I was standing by my open bathroom window, and at that moment I heard an eagle cry out. And I shouted, I just heard an eagle and then I heard the cry again. It was mounted to this guy, our God is so good. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. The Lord give you all the strength to press on and run the race before us fixing our eyes on Jesus. Amen. And then just thanking them for their baseball for prayers. So, like I said, global family also provides prayer themes themes of the week. For the prayer room. And, you know, you can use this in a number of different ways. But sometimes it's helpful people. You know, it's a really way to teach, teach about the feasts and the schedule of the feasts, maybe teach about the church and the church schedule. Maybe you don't teach about Bible as people's people who don't yet have the word of God. Were interceding for cities, the persecuted church, praying for the unreached. And then the Jews, Israel and one new man. So those are the themes that we send out every week, just as a best practice, and really, Lisa and and Liz are the ones who developed this hour of prayer. But this is what really taught me how to pray. You know, you enter your hour with praise, and worship. And it's just that process of letting everything else go and recognizing you are actually Sitting at the feet of Jesus, and giving him proper adoration. And in that also,
there may be some repentance that needs to happen, we want to have clean hands and a pure heart before we actually move on to intercession. So just allowing time for that with the people and the people in the room. Sometimes it's best to just open the mic and let people you know, pray out so that they're not having to confess in front of everybody, privately, but everybody in unison can do that. And then moving on to intercession and really just letting the holy spirit guide the rest of of the hour. And whatever points you're going to cover that day. I'm obviously global family has just been amazing on it. What I want to say we started prayer force, we launched on November 2, that room is not yet full, and yet we knew it wouldn't be. So we're kind of competing with, you know, in the United States, like the elections and all the different prayer groups that were happening, then global family waited to launch January 1, almost 40 nations in over 15 languages being expressed in their prayer rooms. But anytime you can come in and pray with people, an amazing an amazing thing. So people can have their individual needs, prayed for which is a really important aspect of global family that we're able to offer. I just have a couple of testimonies. And like I said, this launched January 1. And everybody here probably has testimonies. But we've had testimonies of angelic protection, we have had healings. I mean, people are just being awakened and revived and the power of the Lord's presence is unmatched. But I mean, we've had lives changed. I had this testimony by one woman who joined with us on Friday, I actually thought that the little girl that she was holding was her daughter, but it was actually her granddaughter. And I asked her to pray for mothers. And when she prayed, she was just like, we get to have this time together because her mom doesn't yet or isn't, you know, expressing faith in the Lord. But then she prayed. And then she wrote me this email later, she said, thank you so much for leading God moves swiftly after church today. My eight year old granddaughter who participated in prayer asked to be baptized in our hot tub. The Spirit came in power when she was baptized. And she declared she never wanted to wash this off. She was able to verbalize who God was names of God and His character. I am I'm done with God's grace and love my family. And on Saturday, my daughter, which is the one who didn't believe she actually confessed that she had been a Christian. So she's like God is moving in my family. So that's why I just want to say, God is moving in the prayer room. And he is using this as a method to reach the world that has been to now an unmatched. So as we get to the best practices, and we're going to turn this over to the panel really soon. You know, team, he's what I've seen. Team is really important and the Lord will bring the team. But it's really important to have a leader, somebody who's going to keep everybody headed in the right direction at the right speed. It's really important to have an administrator somebody who has those skills of logistics and keeping everybody on track and sending meeting reminders and making sure that we're meeting you need to have people who are technical and tech savvy people who can build a website. The website is really critical. It's a gathering place for All of the information and the signups about the prayer room is also really useful and being able to connect and communicate with people, you now need to have people who are going to keep the schedule and just onboard everybody, and communication. And then you also need people who really have the contacts, the networks, the prayer groups, the buy in from those groups that are like, yes, we want to actually join this prayer room and come here as opposed to how we've been doing it before. And there are a lot of benefits to having that unified strength and approach. I was just gonna make a funny note about schedulers having an enneagram type one as a scheduler is really helpful both both Maya and I are type one, so you need to have that kind of person. Um, just to streamline the process of onboarding. You know, we've seen that you need two different types of signups. One is going to be for PR leaders. And one is for the prayer room itself. And that's just a way to, you know, give different groups the information that they need, and to be able to on them, board them appropriately. Same thing with the schedule, it needs to be public so that people can see what hours are open, what hours Can I feel, how does it work for my schedule. But then you also need to have, you know, a private way of communicating with your leaders, not everybody wants all of their private details on a website. In this day and age, you kind of can't have it. Security is an issue that I won't really address here. But we can talk about with a panel. But it's really important in this day and age to your security of the participants. And also the security of the room, which we've worked a lot with our product project to try and manage. But what note about that is just not publishing the zoom link, not posting it to social media programs and having our platforms. But having those signups having people kind of give their personal information, it gives you a way of
ensuring that the people who are going to be joining the room actually want to be praying with you. And that's really, you know it on the website. You know, having clear vision, easily navigable kind of like the source to have all of the information collected. And also a way to be able to share and post testimonies, praise reports, is also an important thing. So thank you for the opportunity to share this testimony really of God's faithfulness in the prayer room. And just a note as encouragement. I mean, the Lord holds our incense in bowls beforehand, in our prayers are being added to the pairs of everyone who's come before us. I mean, our prayers are being added to the prison, George Mueller, and Gordon Lindsey and Rhys house and Daniel, and Moses, and Jesus. And so, you know, until their fifth elmen. Let's keep praying.
Thank you so much melody, we're applauding plus doesn't work very well in zoom. But we are extremely grateful for the insights in you. You have a really unique window into what's going on. This is an incredibly important word for us to learn about. You've opened my eyes and a lot of ways, even to the way that in some of the testimonies, you shared that there's really a revival taking place online. That's a new category for me. I knew that prayer was taking place online, that sure that I knew that there was sort of like this revival, ongoing and churning online. So you're, you're you've got a lot of really amazing insights. As a discipline panel, any any questions, any observations?
Maybe I got something to think about for us to consider maybe as a group is. So now this looks like the scope of this panel is is really about the the online prayer room, and have we ever looked historically, you know, what does what does this notion of praying corporately mean? Here we are in 2021? Were a couple decades ago, you know, zoom wasn't certainly where they were, or a lot of technology wasn't in place as well. But But how do we think about collectively praying with each other looks like historically and what what do we think it how it interacts with us today and what might the future hold in terms of how we can communicate prayer requests to one another?
I think it depends. And I am a lawyer. So I'm sorry. That If I don't answer these questions like, really succinctly, I think having themes each week where you're trying to focus people towards, what is the Lord doing is the best way. And I, what I didn't mention before was that we're really trying to see in the prayer room we're seeing not with earthly eyes, we're seeing with Kingdom eyes. So we have to kind of rise above the issues that we see. And then pray his promises from his word. And so as almost not even if there's an individual request, like somebody needs healing, or, you know, provision for something those are addressed in the parent room. And yet, it's, it's almost like all of us are being called up higher in this time to be like, what is the Lord doing on this earth? And how can we advance his work with our mouth, praying His Word. So anybody else want to add?
Historically, if I think back to the first Protestant 24, seven, prayer movement, what comes to mind is the story that moravians, of course, zinzendorf would gathered the moravians together in that small community once a week, to give them some prayer points from Scripture, he would receive letters that would come from the different missionaries that are out on the field, of course, these would take six to eight months, for him to receive reports of what to pray for, and, and how God is answering prayer. And so when I think about today, I go, Wow, this amazing globalizing of the prayer movement, we can have real time information, and be able to mobilize literally hundreds of 1000s, potentially, if we know each other. And so the I guess, the exponential impact, I think, can be a lot greater today than it was in that day. Because it's really about us coming together and corporate agreement, in the place of prayer around what God is doing, what's his will, what's his purposes, what's on his heart. And I think one of the values we've been trying to really train people, at least in the global family program, I know this is Melody's heart as well and in California, but teaching people how to pray scripture, because that's our ground, that's our foundation. This we know is God's will. And then as the Lord brings us, targets of prayer, you might say, are prayer alerts of things going on that, that we need the power of God to show up, we need his activity to increase, we can do that in real time with each other around the world. It's quite amazing. I was on a call and my set nine to 10, with a intercessor, from Nepal, just a couple of weeks ago. And we were praying for an unreached people group, the suton in India. And so we're sharing some statistics, but then all of a sudden, you know, he's aware of this people group. And he's praying from the poll, and here we are in the US. And we're all in agreement about what God wants to do. And now he's a new friend, too. So I love the impact of this. And I think when you think about the Moravian movement that spread across across the earth, I think in today's world, especially with COVID, I think we could see these canopies of these digital prayer rooms, in nations all over the world multiplying. So you could have regional prayer ones, like they do in California, you could have one of these and in Mumbai, and you know, in Singapore, and, you know, Jakarta, Indonesia. And also we can have these bigger platforms like the global family firm, where we're coming together now to pray globally. So pretty exciting to see what God's doing in this. It's definitely a new day in the prayer movement.
Yeah, I just wanted to add that, I mean, last week, for example, we were able to immediately respond to specific prayers of believers in Myanmar, and pray for me and more and intercede for me and more like in real time, it didn't take a week to find out like what was happening there. We had footage and, you know, requests and similarly in in Iran and elsewhere, where people are being oppressed or just it's just being able to respond in unity in real time is a tremendous benefit of the program.
You love to the that you started with, with a Bible study or, you know the this the capacity of what can happen now through text knology it can be local, it can be in your city wide, it can be community wide statewide, you know, nationwide globally. But I really appreciate it and felt like what God was prompting me even yesterday thinking about this, your your comment and your scripture reference, you know, do not despise small beginnings, because people come in together with their own local prayer teams, their own local Bible studies, developing relationships, you know, again, in this in this COVID environment, and the isolation that I think the enemy has tried to bring, the Lord is showing us and growing us in new ways to communicate, to come together, to pray together, to learn together to grow together, and praise God, he is not confined or kept out of these technologies, like you, like you were saying that with through your testimonies, God's Spirit is very much alive, as we gather together, even through through the technology, we'd still love to reach out and physically, you know, be able to hug one another and really be able to fellowship and in that close connectedness, but like you, like you said, are being able to gather in this kind of environment. You know, it brings me into your home, and brought you into mine that would not have happened otherwise. So God is using moving in a in a unique way to continue to bring us together and unite us in prayer and fellowship before the throne of God in ways that are that are very unique and powerful. Thank you.
I had a comment as well, you know, I have a story that is similar to melodies in terms of this time last year, I was pressing into into God personally for my own life, and how he would use me and in that season, and I had no idea that I was going to land here. And along that journey, I had this this wonderful vision of every nation praying in unity. And I was overwhelmed with that. And that's how I originally connected with some of those people here. And really what God showed me through that journey, and getting connected to the global family was that it takes everybody doing their part. And so honoring each person in their role. And so I just wanted to just open a question to the other panelists to say, how have each of you pressed in, in making sure that you're staying connected to God? What are you doing? And then what's my role?
I think is a very good question, Andrea. Because I think for me personally, as things have grown, I think it's a real debating points of in the searching of how to organize time, I know it might sound boring, but there's so much demand, I could be in a prayer meeting 24 hours a day, not just in the global breath, family, but in multiple other streams. In fact, there's a conflict of interest every minute for things for every hour, it's just you know, and that's just the online stuff. That's my local things. I think God is asking us to, to make choices, and, and to carve out that precious time of the secret place with him alone. May the temptation might be to join everything, and be with our friends all day long. But personally, for me, I have to, you know, take that time. For me, it's in my diary as an event. Time with Jesus is in the diary, at the beginning of the day, so that that is the freshest time because I think without the personal relationship with Jesus, the rest of it can become like a job. And, and also, prayer is not the end goal. You're not praying because we're praying, we're praying to see God's kingdom come. And Jesus is his end goal. And his kingdom. So I think to get things in perspective, and to get the fresh, fresh bread each day, it takes a lot of intentionality and protecting those those times, just by yourself.
Alright, well, I was gonna loop back a little bit to the testimony issue, or the testimonies that I love the things that melody you incorporated with your presentation of how you've seen God move. And then Jonathan, you saying, Oh, I'm thinking about this in a different way. And just to add to that, I think for me, it was very eye opening. It was when we first did one a year and a half ago September, with a small group of as Lisa and Jenny and some others that helped to do the first 10 days virtual. I myself was a little skeptical. I had been at the in person 10 days. And you know, the sense of this presence of God at those in person things, I just wasn't sure whether we would be able to have that same sense of God's imminent presence with us in an online format. And so I was kind of a doubter, I guess, in a way, even though I was one of the ones that helped put it together, but it was amazing to see how God really did. His presence was very real in that virtual space. And as an example of another testimony from that earlier time, one of the gals that was helping facilitate was from Kenya. And she had been talking about how they had in their time, done a lot of prayer just hit her heart, so much praying for the Jews and for Israel. And she commented about how their nation had been, as a government wrestling with what to do about their embassy, and an outcome, they ended up seeing their nation's embassy moved to Jerusalem, that had been part of what they had been praying for just in a month or two, after their PR time. And then beyond that, she ended up getting personal contacts from people from Israel that ended up coming to Kenya. And it opened the door for in person ministry that has continued on till now. And it was a amazing how that virtual space really did create physical changes and physical opportunities, not only in the prayers that they prayed, being answered, but also in God, opening doors for growth and for ministry beyond that. So I think we have no idea what all God has done and is doing as we pray in these spaces. It's amazing.
Yeah, Melody mentioned it already, but just want to really hone in on this powerful truth around this unity in the virtual prayer space. But it has to do with God using our coming together, day and night, nine day to take out our phone and connect with the brother and sister groups. I mean, the ease and the access is just so it's it's monumental. Those who of us who have been in the prayer movement for for decades and have started houses of prayer and certain houses of prayer, a lot of the challenge is that location, the distance and the time factor. But if you have 15 minutes, if you're going for a jog, if you're, if you're between meetings, you can just connect, and that is unprecedented. And that's one of my favorite things about what God's doing here. Here at Seed Company, we serve just under 1000 language communities around the world, and the partnership with global founding prayer and us coming together. Especially, you know, our leadership as a company and what Lord, the Lord is speaking to me about was just the catalytic catalytic nature towards towards missions towards activating Christians towards living it out, right? Maybe Maybe 20 years ago or so, there was this odd thing that happened with the prayer missions movement, that there was a little bit of a dissection between the two, which biblically, historically, and never has been. And I see God in this day, especially the past five to 10 years. And even when does virtual prayer room experience that shifting and an a biblical, more biblical model of of prayer missions being intrinsically connected is happening and just so excited about this? I can't, the amount of ANSWERED PRAYER but amount the amount of Christians being catalyzed towards towards following through with our prayers towards walking out of prayers towards Matthew 2018 through 20. It's It's It's very exciting. And there's many in the Bible translation movement that are very excited around what God's gonna do with with this as we go prayer, unceasing prayer for Bible translation. And, and the churches and ministries that can everyday Christians, individual Christians that can rise up and take action to to fulfill the Great Commission. I don't think there's something as as potent and as uniting. That has happened in our and in the past, maybe a majority of the missions and prayer movement. So I'm so excited. It has been such a joy to team up and connect and relationally just grow with folks all around the world. So Praise God. Amen.
It was one question that I wanted to get to both melody and to Jason, everybody as well. But the question would be this, echoing what Solomon is saying what Liz and Andrea been saying to about, okay, we're in a new moment. So I nominate, we're Pat. We should move past the prototype stage as quickly as we can. One of the things that we've been doing is sort of proof of concept. Hey, can we sustain perpetual Prayer. Yes, the Holy Spirit has answered our prayers. Now, it seems to me that we need to think what's past prototype stage it works, we ought not to have one channel, we ought to have 10,000 channels of perpetual prayer. And we can't do that we would very quickly exhaust our resources and burnout. So we need to be aimed and geared for sustained multiplication so that we can provide a continual proof of concept. But other people that we don't know yet go out and start their own things that has no formal relationship, but is sort of echoing what the Holy Spirit is doing in his community. would you address that proposal? Jason and melody? And everybody?
Yeah, excellent. Totally agree, Jonathan. I think part of that is developing some tools, kind of like what you're doing here. So that we can introduce this to the wider global PR movement that's already there on the ground. I think more and more of these types of platforms, where it's, we're training people we're envisioning, I think, for people to have an opportunity to peek into this is kind of what it looks like for somebody that's never experienced that before. We're hoping you know, at least to the global family prayer that will continuous at least through 2021. But really have a that's kind of the commitment of the leaders, but we're saying to each of them to as we get closer, Hey, would you consider raising up and leading one of these in your region through IPC international PR Connect, which I helped facilitate? I'd love to see this in the 12 Regional prayer networks that we're working on. Very similar. I think this is Jenny's heart as well, with efnet. And our partnership together there. So yeah, I think we start slow. But at the same time, we're ready to kind of introduce this to the wider Body of Christ. I, I think, especially denominational leaders, through Southern Baptist and through assembly, some of these that are especially focused on mission and evangelism. This can be great tools for them. So yesterday, man, and I think some of the training that that that we need, as well as you know, how to do effective prayer, how to do enjoyable prayer, sustainable prayer on a digital platform. These are some new concepts that we're learning as we go. Haven't been here before too much yet. So. Yeah. Amen. Amen.
I mean, that was really the vision. And I think we just kind of think big, but for prayer, for us, it was like, this will be a model that every state can use, or even, you know, every county can use. So we have 54 counties, we're thinking like, every county, you can kind of do this, but it really is just encouraging the unity of the body of Christ. And so you know, the the, like, I love being able to play, pray with people in Malaysia. And, you know, I learned from people in Malaysia, and I'm learning from people and, you know, Uganda and elsewhere, but it's really, the body of Christ is called to disciple nations. And through the prayer room, that is actually what we're thinking about, how are we going to disciple nations and so we're calling people in to pray and pray for these things. And then in that, in that unity, disciple, the nation, so
I was struck by what you said that the the practice of prayer is a form of discipleship, it's a form of training, we're sort of embodying of liturgy commonly. Yep. That's beautiful. final final comments of that, or other questions that we need to discuss? It will close in just a few minutes?
Yeah, I just say that. Yeah, that when you think about the challenges, of, you know, doing what you're suggesting, Jonathan, there are already other groups that are doing 24, seven prayer. Jenny mentioned the challenge of now, there's so many opportunities, you know, figuring out juggling our time and prioritizing and really listening to the Lord, what's our focus, but I think helping the body in general, become comfortable with the technology and in interacting this way, being able to deal with security issues. Now that we are coming into a climate it seems like where Christian voices and people of faith are being shut down and deep platformed. And then learning how to build real community in this kind of an environment. I think those are the challenges we're tackling. I think it's possible and I think we're beginning to see some of that I would say the testimony for me of this connection of the person from Israel, the person from Kenya, of that became a real in person connection. The more you become close to somebody, there is that desire, then to really physically be with them. So, I think those are some of the challenges but also the opportunities that God's giving COVID as a stimulus toward that. You know, to find other ways to connect, that transcend physically traveling. So hopefully we can leverage that and really see that expanding.
For me, there are still a few gaps. I mean, we do celebrate the unity. And I agree with all the wonderful things which zoom is allowing us to do. But on the other side is that it isn't open to everybody, there's all Bennett's always going to be a lot of the population that don't have access to zoom. Unfortunately, they are excluded. I think we've managed to get over language barriers, we are divided into different time spaces, but language, which is good. For the other thing, I'll be the generations. So I'm strong believer in all generations. And I feel that in our zoom experience, at the moment, it hasn't really extended to the extremities, the young and the old. So so I think that that's something to have to work on and, and just through COVID, Millennials at home, you know, they've, they've used him in a much more fun kind of way within our parameters. So you know, you can have quizzes and puzzles and games, and there's all sorts of things that you can do, which we can be more creative in the zoom space than we seem to have captivated in our press space. But I think there is more more options be explored to involve children in prayer, using the Zoom Room. And, yeah, and I think that's something that we're missing at the moment, we're not really captivating the younger people.
I mean, I agree and trying to reach everybody. One of the things that I'm in terms of shaping the nation that we're focusing on is family altar time. So when you if you can impact the parents and the believers and bring them in and get them praying and realizing like you are actually called to prayer. And it also stirs up this idea of being the person who's actually out on the street, also communicating your testimony, and what part of your testimony is going to touch that person and brought draw them closer to the Lord, You are also going to be impacting your children. And so it is, you know, our responsibility to be teaching our children how to pray, and the more believers who are doing that it will necessarily you will be impacting your children and children, and they're going to be impacting their friends. And so, I mean, the prayer room isn't the only solution. But it is a way that the Lord is is moving and drawing people closer to himself, which is awesome.
That's the part that I'm excited about growing into is as the prayer room has stood up, and we've even we've started, you know, targeting or prayers and becoming more effective and strategic in praying into the heart of God. How do we then mobilize and share the testimonies with our friends and neighbors and communities? How do we, you know, as God stirs the hearts I've been in, I don't know how many hours where God has just stirred the hearts of the people in the room for the things that we've been praying for, where eyes have been opened that they haven't ever seen. And so then how do we take that passion that God is stirring up and mobilize those individuals, whether that's in demolitions, whether that sharing your story with a neighbor, whether it's partnering to help get a Bible translation, whatever that is, as God stirs the heart, having the ability to mobilize those individuals is the part that I'm excited about. Because I think this, at least for the global family, we've started in prayer and in unity, but God's stirring, and the Holy Spirit starting to move people. So then how do we equip them for that?
entry, we've been thinking about how to connect prayer groups to prayer groups online. That's actually a very interesting direction that I have not been fully focused on. How do you connect to prayer groups not to cluster them one to another to other online predators, but how do you connect them to the ground? How do you get these testimonies to flow out to the neighborhood? That's really interesting. Thank you so much to melody, for sharing her expertise. And for her careful presentation. Please, would you be willing to close us in prayer, please?
Yes, I'd be happy to your Thank you. Father, thank you so much for melody for her sharing from her heart and her experience, Lord, thank you for Jonathan and for the Aqua debt project and for their gift of hospitality and their generosity and sharing their expertise and their understandings. And Lord, thank you for all of the leaders that have gathered here. Lord, we pray that you would teach us all Lord how to continue to grow as you build the connective tissue of the body or We pray you grow us in understanding how to engage the youngest and the oldest and all in between from every generation, every tribe, every nation, Lord, as you would desire to build the body, Lord, you're the one who's at work doing that. And we just give glory for what you have done already. And Lord, look forward to what you're continuing to do. We thank you in Jesus name, amen.
Amen. God's peace to you have a great day and a great weekend. Thank you, Melody for your expertise.