Journals @ Awaken This HeartThe musings of Pastor Corey Gibson on leadership, ministry and life.

One Prayer¦

There is the sweeping prayer movement that is about to take place, like no other. Over 550 churches, have decided to come together under 1 banner… PRAYER! If you visit www.oneprayer.com, you would notice that churches from all over America, from different denominations, are being asked, “If God would answer ‘one prayer’ for the church at large, what would you pray?”

My answer: Oh God, would the church walk in intimacy? Why you might asked??? Well that’s simple. We need to be found in an intimate love walk with Christ. We are just coming off a series on Matthew 25. We learned that we must always be aware of the time and prepare our hearts with intimacy. If the foolish brides would have been intimate with the bridegroom, they would have realizes there need of oil. We have a direct relationship with Christ Jesus. He has called us in to love and romance with him. Just as in a natural marriage, God desires that we are intimate with him. The same God who created the heavens and earth, desires our heart so much that he crushed his own son, Jesus so that we may love him. The bridegroom, Christ Jesus, willing die so we could understand how much God desperate wanted to show love. That through his death, man could understand the Father’s Heart. Through much pain and suffering, we are called to share in the same idea.

Going back to Matthew 25: When we have intimacy with Jesus, we understand that the talents (physical and financial) the Master has given us, does not belong to us. We have to invest what the Master has given us, so that others are served. Whatever we do to the weakest person, we have also done it to Christ Jesus. All 3 sections of Matthew 25 at the end, they all received a reward but at a earthly lost. With intimacy – suffering must come and surrendering must take place!

One Prayer – Intimacy in the church!

Have you ever wondered why our generation is so far from the past generation…? I mean, we have advanced in so many ways from a technology standpoint, media, creative ideas, and even to the point of how we view God, the Church, and the people who called themselves “Christians.”

Why is it that so many teens called themselves Christians, but really don’t have a true understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Now lets throw sinning to the side, cause we all know that its wrong and that we will be judge for it…. but what about the things we should be doing. Such as reading our bible, praying, fasting, praise & worship… wasn’t we commanded to do those things also. God did not tell us just to obey and follow the 10 Commandments… but we also were told/given the core value system of the Kingdom of Heaven by Jesus. (Matt ch. 5-7, John ch. 14-17, etc)

Why is it that we who claim to be Christian don’t even do the simple requirement that has been demanded of us…. We claim to be Christians, but we are never praying, never witnessing and we dont even carry our bibles to church.

I remember about 2 months ago, I had to literally deal with this in our youth ministry. The teens were just showing up to church; no bibles in hand, they were hardly praying/worshipping during services… it were as if they was coming just to party and see each other. We would visit other churches and only 1 particular person would true be into the message, taking notes and engaged in his bible during the message.

I had to sit down on a Saturday evening with them and find out what was going through their heads… What drove them to proclaim that they are Christians and that they couldn’t even do the simple requirement in bringing their bibles to church and follow along with the speaker… What made me really upset and disappointed was that majority of them didn’t even know the vision of the youth ministry – And mind you, that these are the regular kids who attend and how we hit our vision someway or another every month. This 3 hours spill from me had some interesting things come out it.

I found out that they had lost the passion not only for the youth ministry but that they had also lost the passion for Jesus. They were exhausted from the wear/tear of school, their family and the pressures of life. It wasn’t a result of boring teaching, it wasn’t that there was no fun, or that they was physically tired from their day…. it all resulted from them being ill-equipped. No matter how fun the youth services are, how excellent and relevant the teaching is, or how much technology you have.. if their hearts are not already motivated and ravished by the man, Christ Jesus… at some point the passion will dwindled down. They have to allow this to take place… its not on mommy and daddy, nor is it the youth pastor job. They must take accountability for themselves.

We are in a desperate need for something that is real and raw for this generation of young people. Can we just stop faking the funk and truly allow Jesus to ravish our souls and radiate our hearts. Let us truly be Christians… there is nothing worse for a person who claims to be a Christian to not show/act like what they are. We are Christ followers… lets carry our cross daily