7-7-7 Prayer Initiative

by John Wilson

Some might say “you can't teach an old dog new tricks.” But at 67 years old I can clearly say the Lord is patiently teaching me every day. Three years ago when Barbara's sister Pat Stussie died from cancer after much medical and hospital time and much prayer from our family and many friends at Apostles and beyond, I was mad at God and confused about prayer. The Lord used my questions to open a window into prayer and help me to discover what the Bible teaches us about prayer, what God's promises are and how He wants us to pray.

With support from our pastors and with some helpful teaching from Barbie Burgess and our prayer team I have found incredible blessing from corporate, small group, family and personal prayer. I have found peace, witnessed healing, been blessed through praise and worship and rediscovered the Lord who created me and loves me.

I have also discovered that while God wants to bless us through prayer, Satan wants to discourage us and tempt us to question God and lead us on wrong paths. We need to be prepared for the times we are tempted and challenged.

A great thing is coming in about a week - the 7-7-7 prayer initiative created by Anne Graham Lotz In the 7th month (July), for 7 days (July 1-7) we would pray, followed by 7 hours of prayer and fasting on the 7th day (July 7).

The purpose of the 7-7-7 prayer imitative is:

- For God the Father to restrain, protect, and deliver His people from the evil that has come into our world.

- For God the Son to be exalted, magnified, and glorified in His church, in our nation, and in our lives.

- For God the Holy Spirit to fall on us in a fresh way, compelling the church to repent of sin and our nation to return to faith in the living God, resulting in a great national spiritual awakening.

I’m inviting you to partner with me and many others in Raleigh during the 7 days in July. Please access the website - http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/events/urgent-call-to-prayer/. You will receive a prayer written for each of the 7 days to help unite us in one spirit and one voice as we cry out to God. Please be assured there is no other agenda in this initiative. This is not about promoting anything or anyone. This is all about calling God’s people together to pray, before it’s too late, and judgment falls on our nation.