Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #198 United in Prayer (Pt 2) - with Special Guest Amy Parks from the National Day of Prayer Task Force

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#198 United in Prayer (Pt 2) - with Special Guest Amy Parks from the National Day of Prayer Task Force · The OneCry Podcast

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And so they see the example of the National Day of Prayer and see that it's
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a good thing. It's not just a good thing, it's a necessary thing.
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Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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Hello, welcome to the OneCry Podcast. I'm Ben Dishner,
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the Global Ministries Director for OneCry, and I'm so glad to have back for
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a second episode Amy Parks, who is the Communications Director for the National
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Day of Prayer Task Force.
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And we had a great discussion last week just about what's happening currently
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in that arena, what we're seeing nationally. So welcome back, Amy. So good to have you.
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Thanks for having me back. Well, I would like to continue our discussion that we had last week.
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We were talking about some great trends that we were seeing as far as growth.
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We were talking about some things, how you were drawn to National Day of Prayer.
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Also, just seeing just some creative things. That's really exciting.
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A lot of people have no idea of all the things that are happening around the country.
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One thing I'd like to talk about is we were together recently at a gathering
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in Texas at Texas A&M for the Revival Roundtable,
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which One Cry does every year in conjunction with a Collegiate Day of Prayer.
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One of the things we focused on during that gathering was passing the baton,
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was really seeing God move in the next generation and the stirrings that are happening currently.
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So I wanted to ask you from your perspective with the National Day of Prayer,
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it's very likely you guys have seen some trends happening. And I was just wondering
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if you could tell us about some of the things you're seeing nationally.
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Absolutely. Well, we are seeing so many younger people, younger generations
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excited about the National Day of Prayer.
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But even greater than that, I think,
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is we are seeing intergenerational partnership, which I think is great.
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So important in the kingdom because God didn't call us to separate as generations.
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He called us to one body, one faith, one baptism as we read in scripture.
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So I have a couple of gatherings that I've been hearing about at Oregon State University.
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There's going to be a National Day of Prayer gathering. And actually,
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the young man who organized that or is organizing that also hosted a collegiate
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day of prayer gathering.
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So we're seeing how these national days of prayer, of encouragement,
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are building on top of one another, are building this momentum.
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So we know that the younger brothers and sisters there at Oregon State are already
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fueled, are already on fire for prayer. So it's exciting to see that.
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Another great moment of growth that we've seen has been in the state of Michigan.
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So last year, our Michigan State Coordinator, Carla Van Otteren,
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invited younger brothers and sisters to pray on the stage from the microphone
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at their capital state gathering there.
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And what was beautiful about that is there would be a younger brother and sister,
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and then they would pray with an older brother and sister about the same topic.
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And then many of those younger brothers and sisters have joined what they're
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now calling the Michigan Youth Council for National Day of Prayer.
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And so that group is meeting every other week on Mondays, and they are speaking
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into the strategy of what God is calling them to do as a state network to mobilize
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prayer within their own generation.
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And that one is so exciting to see and is exactly what so many of us were talking
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about at the Revival Roundtable of meaningful ownership in this,
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not just a moment of passing the baton, but of carrying the baton together.
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And also thinking about how the contributions of young people are thoughtful
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and meaningful beyond just, oh, hey, can you pray for your generation? Yes, yes, and amen.
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Hey, can you pray for the future generations? Hey, can you pray for the generations
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that have come before you? Hey, can you pray for our military and for your pastors?
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That's not keeping our younger brothers and sisters in a box,
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but also encouraging them to grow.
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And then, of course, just like I've experienced, encouragement in the context of mentorship.
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Of a safe place someone who can say hey you know have you considered trying
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something this way or hey you're having this idea i tried that one time and
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here's what happened so maybe how can you take it in a new direction.
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Um, we're also seeing how even younger little ones are being able to be involved
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with National Day of Prayer in the state of Georgia at their state capitol gathering.
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They're having a Christian school choir come and lead worship.
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So that's another exciting way that we're seeing people excited about bringing
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young people in to participate and use the skills and abilities that God's given them.
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That's really exciting. I love to hear the things that are kind of outside of the box.
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And so often we get used to certain formats. We get to where we just follow a structure or a list.
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And hearing these fresh ideas really, it excites me in the sense that people
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take it a little more seriously.
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Or it also invites new involvement. So I really love that.
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Can you tell me, and we mentioned some of this, I think, in the last episode.
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So can you tell me of some of the ripple effects that we're seeing as we see a growth in prayer,
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but some of the ripple effects after National Day of Prayer that we're seeing
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happen across the country?
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I know you've mentioned a couple of things, but what are some of it?
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Is there, I know it's the National Day of Prayer, but is there an international influence as well?
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Absolutely. So our National Day of Prayer broadcast goes overseas.
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I believe that there are...
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40 different countries that have access to our National Day of Prayer broadcast.
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We have great partnerships in the UK specifically. I'm very grateful that,
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you know, as another English-speaking nation,
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they're able to very clearly access our gathering and that they aren't just
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praying for themselves, but they're praying with us and for us,
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knowing that the United States has an international influence in ministry,
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in helping ministries and in gospel conversations.
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Recently, this past December, January, a team from the National Day of Prayer
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Task Force Board of Directors met with many leaders in the Ukraine.
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And in February, the Ukraine passed their own National Day of Prayer federal
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law that that is now established in that nation.
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Knowing that so many of us have been praying for them through this war,
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it's been incredible to see that this law established in America is now extending
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across the pond to a nation in such great need.
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So that's kind of our international impact. And even thinking about local impact,
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we encourage each prayer gathering to have a very clear gospel presentation.
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That's the core of our faith. That's the whole reason we get to talk to the Lord in prayer.
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So it's always exciting hearing about people who come to those.
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But one of the other ways that we see there being greater and greater effect,
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and it was actually talked about at our Revival Roundtable with the Collegiate Day of Prayer,
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is seeing the unity among pastors and Christian leaders in communities of starting
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to pray together and pray for one another and seeing what it looks like and
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how a community can shift and change when the believers in that community encourage
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one another and lift one another up.
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Our president, Kathy Branzell, always talks about as Christian brothers and
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sisters, we complete one another. We never compete.
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So God gives us different gifts, abilities, different church sizes,
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different church flavors, if you will, all pointing towards Christ Jesus.
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Amen. That's really great. Can you tell me other things that happened during
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or let our listeners know, because I know some of them myself.
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But what are some other things that happened during that week that the congressional
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observance happens in D.C.?
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What are some cool things that you see happen there?
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Yes. So that week there will be a national rooftop encounter through the Rooftop
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Encounter Organization that will be leading a group to go up to a high place
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and seek the Lord as we read about in Acts.
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And then across the nation, so many local gatherings have prayer gatherings
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leading up to and through the National Day of Prayer.
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I know in St. Louis, they're going to be prayer walking their capital in the
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days leading up to the National Day of Prayer.
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Many places will do Bible readings, reading through the whole of Scripture before
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the National Day of Prayer, saturating hearts in Scripture.
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There will be some people that choose to fast leading up to the National Day of Prayer.
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In that position that we read about in Scripture. So we see that the National
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Day of Prayer is a celebration and a culmination of all the prayers that we
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pray throughout the year.
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And knowing that when we prepare our hearts thoughtfully and prayerfully and
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really tune in and listen to the Holy Spirit, God will always move and will
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always speak powerfully to us.
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I love to hear all those things. It's really exciting to me.
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I think we so often relegate prayer to just a...
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Lack of a better word, just a normal task that we don't think about.
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We just do it. We check it off a list.
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And so having that emphasis is so important.
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I think we even heard from a friend,
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Kyle Lance Martin, with Time to Revive while we were at that revival roundtable
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about some really neat occurrences with other countries that have been challenged
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to do the same, to call their country to prayer.
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And so they see the example of the National Day of Prayer and see that it's
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a good thing. It's not just a good thing. It's a necessary thing.
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Absolutely. And I think we don't really put enough emphasis on it.
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I would encourage any listeners, I would encourage anyone who's watching,
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if you don't know about a gathering in your area, or if you don't know if there's
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one at your courthouse in your county or in your state.
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It'd be a great opportunity to reach out to some folks and even go to the National
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Day of Prayer website to see if there is anything within your vicinity to be a part of.
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We can always pray more toward what God wants to do in our country.
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And as we pray for the nations, you know, God has brought the nations to us Yes.
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And so I'm sure on National Day of Prayer, we're also seeing different ethnicities,
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different languages represented in our own country.
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Do we do we have a lot of that happening, too?
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We have a lot of that. We see so often in the gathering reports that we get
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back from our coordinators that they have multiple different translators translating
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from English, Vietnamese, Spanish.
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We do produce downloadable Spanish language resources because we had such a
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high ask for so many of our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters to have resources
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in their heart language.
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That has been so encouraging. And we will get photos from them.
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There is a Spanish language radio station in Southern California that had a
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national day of prayer gathering.
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It's so encouraging. Like you say, that the Lord is bringing the nations to
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us here in America, and that what
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an opportunity to get to pray with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Amen. I love that because just anytime you go out of the country and you realize
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there are so many people who, yes, they speak English, but it's not their first language.
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And so their heart language, whenever you're in missions, is something you talk
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about. So hearing people coming together, praying in their first language,
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their heart language, they open up even more in their prayer times.
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So I love that. That's such a beautiful thing in the body of Christ.
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And there's such a wonderful diversity that God has mixed together of ethnicities and nationalities.
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And we're just excited to see God doing things across the board.
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So what are some things that you would encourage people to do over the next
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few weeks as they prepare for the National Day of Prayer?
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Absolutely. Well, I would first encourage folks, as you said,
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Ben, to visit our website and see what's going on in your community.
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That's nationaldayofprayer.org forward slash find, F-I-N-D, to see what's going
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on where you live. If there's not something, we encourage you to perhaps consider it.
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A great resource, and I know we talked about this last week,
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but would be our National Day of Prayer Prayer Guide.
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It has scriptures, the National Day of Prayer, prayer prompts for all seven
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centers of influence that really lays out.
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Is a launching point to help launch your national day
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of prayer gathering add in some worship songs which
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is just singing our prayers and there you go if
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you do open up your church's doors whether for a prayer gathering praying through
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the prayer guide or live streaming the national day of prayer broadcast you
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can become the gathering place in your community you can list that gathering
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on the gathering finder that we have on our website nationaldayofprayer.org
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and there's a button to list your gathering,
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and that will allow other people in your community or vicinity who are looking
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to pray with you, they'll know where to find you.
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And then, of course, we encourage people to meditate on Scripture.
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This year, our theme verse is Romans 15, 13, in the NAS version.
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Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
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so that you will abound and hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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And that comes into play with our 2025 National Day of Prayer theme,
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Pour Out to the God of Hope and Be Filled.
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So we're just encouraging people to meditate on scriptures that revolve around
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hope, believing, knowing that hope is joyful, confident expectation in the Lord,
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that He will fulfill His promises, that His character is true.
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So really asking people, where are we placing our hope? Are we placing our hope
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in something that will not last for forever and something that is temporal,
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something that's human, maybe a person or a thing or an institution that will ultimately fail?
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Because anything other than God will fail, but we know that the Lord will remain and never pass away.
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So preparing our hearts in alignment with the theme, I think,
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will be a great encouragement for many people.
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Amen. I need to take up an offering after that.
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Okay, one more question. I'm going to throw one in from left.
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Actually, two more questions. All right. Left field.
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What is the biggest hotspot in the U.S. for prayer culture right now?
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Ooh.
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Okay. I'll hit you with one. California. California.
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Our California National Day of Prayer Task Force team is incredible.
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They have so many gatherings listed throughout their state.
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I mean, I hate to pick just one area. It's a national ministry, but yeah. I know.
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But California, from an organizational perspective, We do have a leadership
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structure for these volunteer prayer coordinators.
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And the leaders in California are so passionate, are so tender to the Holy Spirit.
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And God is really opening up some incredible doors for them.
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Last year, we got to have our leadership summit in Southern California,
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and we just prayed blessing over them as our hosts.
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And so I know that might surprise a lot of people, but we always speak God's blessings.
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Never curses over people and places.
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One thing that someone on our California team kept saying, the Lord isn't done with California.
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And we just say yes and amen to that. So we're excited that there's believers there.
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And as I mentioned, our resources in other languages also plays a great role
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in that of allowing people whose heart language is Spanish to also engage in
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a really deep, meaningful way with the National Day of Prayer.
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That is awesome. I love that. Any other hotspots you can think of?
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Florida. Our Florida team is crushing it.
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They are so active. With a bigger state like California, a bigger state,
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higher population, our Florida team is posting lots of gatherings.
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And then Connecticut is also a hotspot for prayer that we're seeing.
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And being part of a national ministry, I've learned a lot about the different
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ways that different geographical regions really connect in Connecticut from talking to that team.
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They are very locally minded.
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So there are lots of very local prayer gatherings that happen on their town
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greens that happen out in public places where, you know, they may not have 5,000 people.
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But if you have a hundred gatherings of 10 people, that is still a lot of prayer.
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And there's also another layer of intimacy when you have a fewer group of people
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that I think the Holy Spirit moves in a different way than maybe in bigger gatherings.
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So it's really exciting to see how God is moving very differently.
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But the Lord is just so good and faithful to move in ways where the people in
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that geographic community really get to experience Him in incredible ways.
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I love that. That is so, so good. Some great insight on that, too.
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I love realizing different contexts, different regions.
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People have a little bit different personalities in those areas.
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And so, OK, I'm going to do a shout out for Tennessee. Tennessee,
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we need to make sure we're running hard and that we want to get up on that list, that's for sure.
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But, no, we're excited to see what all God's doing.
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So, okay, two more. I said two, but I'm going to make it three. Let's do it.
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I've heard that you have a really neat hobby that you like to do to decompress.
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Can you tell me a little bit about that? Oh, my goodness.
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My husband got me into playing video games. I play Destiny 2.
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I'm a Warlock main for all of those Destiny 2 players that I'm sure are within the one cry audience.
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But we have fun. We play online. I'll be in one room. My husband's on the other.
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We have the gaming headsets. And sometimes his college friends will join in.
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They're military, so they're in different parts of the world.
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And we'll play video games together. And in between fighting aliens and saving
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Earth, it's like, hey, how are you doing?
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How's your heart? What's going on in your life? What's God doing?
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So, you know, ministry wherever people are.
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That's right. I love that. I love it. Sorry, I had to throw that in there.
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That's awesome. I love it. I love it.
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And that is a very distinct generational divide there because I'm an older guy
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and, you know, we didn't have online gaming as much as you guys have.
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Now, with us, it was more everyone came to the house and we did it, you know.
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So, but that's exciting. That's so funny. And I just want to share that.
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One last question.
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What are some...
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Future initiatives that we may be seeing with the National Day of Prayer as
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far as what are we growing into? What do you see happening?
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That might be a question for Kathy, but I'm sure she'd be okay with you sharing
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some things. Yeah, no, that is a great question.
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One of the areas where I think we're working to grow strategically is we produce
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prayer guides throughout the year. We're always encouraging people.
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We have different months that have different prayer themes, prayer focuses,
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just to keep up those prayerful connections in communities and in your local context.
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But one of the areas where we're working to expand is in the texting space.
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So we are sending out prayerful encouragements, knowing that so many people
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are keeping up with their prayer partner, keeping up with their Bible study group.
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You know, somebody in your Bible study gets sick or they get in a car wreck
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or heaven forbid something bad happened.
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You know that the group chat is going to pop off urgent prayer need of that
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SOS moment, send out scripture.
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So we've been really trying to step into this SOS send out scripture moment
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with opportunities to share prayer over text.
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And so many people will copy and paste them. Hey, this is what NDP sent out today.
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So we're encouraging people to text the word HOPE, H-O-P-E, to,
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I wrote the number down and now I can't read my own handwriting, 833-259-8648.
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Again, that's HOPE to 833-259-8648. And throughout the year,
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we'll share different prayer prompts.
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It's usually three texts a week. So we're not going to blow up your inbox.
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But if there's a special holiday, Mother's Day, Veterans Day,
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of course, we cultivate a special prayer for those times.
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And that's also where we keep up and say, hey, this prayer guide just launched.
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Check it out. Hey, this is coming up. Check it out.
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And that's where we're really wanting to meet people where they're at and equip people to pray.
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Pray for one another. Pray with one another. And we feel like everyone's always
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on their phone. So why not bring prayer to the phone?
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Yeah, that's great. That's really awesome. And I love that it's not just National
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Day of Prayer is not just one day.
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It's really it's injecting that into your culture no matter what you're doing.
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So that's that's really I love SOS, too. I've never heard that.
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So that's cool. Send out scripture.
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That's a Kathy Branzell, NDP President Original. She always has these beautiful
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quips that we all just hang on to.
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But like you say, we're calling it NDP 365, National Day of Prayer,
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every day, because every day the nation needs prayer.
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Amen. That is awesome. Way to go, Kathy Branzell. Yeah. Big shout out there.
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Well, I really...
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Have enjoyed having you on. It's been neat to hear all these things.
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And I think what's cool about that is it's going to be able to,
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we'll be able to inject that and partner with other ministries that have a national
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focus and really strengthen what the body of Christ in America is doing.
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So do you mind if I pray for you? And what is
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something specifically that our leaders and
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those listening on the podcast can be praying for
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the leadership of the National Day of Prayer task force
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oh my goodness um just pray for the
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lord's provision um that the
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lord knows that we are looking for humble
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hearts to join us uh join us in prayer these prayerful prayer partners to come
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alongside and then as the lord grows what he's doing we want to be careful stewards
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of the the the people that are joining with us we want to be great and i'll
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say maybe better encouragers.
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Encouragers and equippers.
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So Lord, provide for us as we want to encourage and equip and help us to do
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that better. I would say with a prayer request.
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Amen. Well, let me pray. I'm so thankful to have you on again.
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Father, we come before you and we just praise you.
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For how you use this team and the inspiration you give, Lord.
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Even just these last things we heard that you've placed on Kathy's heart that
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have trickled down and send out scripture, Lord, NDP 365.
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All these things are for your glory.
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Lord, they're not schemes. They're not useful marketing strategies,
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God. They're tangible and doable things for God's people to draw nearer to you.
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And we thank you for that.
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Lord, thank you for how you have provided up to this point.
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And we pray for continued provision, continued inspiration, Lord,
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that you would continue to guard those who are at work, those who you have called
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to lead this important ministry.
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As we call our nation of prayer.
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Lord, would you bless them and Father, help them to be good encouragers as a team, Lord.
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Help them to encourage those who are leading so many of these gatherings and
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even in their own homes that are stepping up to lead even more as they seek your face.
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God, we ask that you would stir hearts and draw people, that you would help
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leaders equip others to do the work of ministry, Lord,
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to equip others to seek your face, to equip others to surrender more and more to you.
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Lord, we desire a movement of your Holy Spirit across our land.
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We desire that you would do something so much bigger than any of these ministries
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could do on our own, God. We desire a God movement.
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A great awakening, Lord, a revival that would sweep this nation and spill over into other nations.
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Thank you for what you're doing internationally. Thank you for how you're stirring
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up other people groups, other language groups.
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And Lord, that people are seeking your face in unity.
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God, would you continue to draw us together under the banner of Jesus Christ?
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It is all for you and for your glory.
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And Lord, we also pray that you would send laborers into the harvest,
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that you would call more people to be involved,
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more intercessors, Lord, more people to be about the Great Commission,
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more people who will continue to tell others about the goodness of God and the gospel message.
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Lord, we thank you. Thank you for calling us for such a time as this.
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Thank you for using us together.
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We praise you and we glorify you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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Amen. Amen. Well, Amy, thank you.
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And it's always great to be able to have a conversation with you.
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And I look forward to seeing you in May in Washington, DC, and encourage everyone
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who's listening to encourage others to be a part of the National Day of Prayer.
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It truly is a catalytic event that will have ripple effects on.
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So let's let's join together and.
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Music.