In talking to many people around the country, it seems we are all experiencing an incredible phenomenon. We are all being awakened somewhere within the 3:00am to 5:00am hours of the morning, every single night. We know that this is not a coincidence.
So we are encouraging our church family to join with us in prayer.
Our prayer link is: http://urbanlife-church.org/prayer.html
Anyone can also access several prayer video clips at http://www.urbanlife-church.org/urban/On_Line_Prayer.htm
As we get closer to the national election, we can sense that something very evil is rising and we are being called to pray.
At the end of next month, there will be a National Call to Prayer in Philadelphia. You may recall that back in 2009 several pastors in this community started an annual PA Awake prayer call.
Now that prayer call has been picked up by several national church leaders who have also come to recognize the significance of Pennsylvania’s role in the founding of the United States of America.
Back in 2006, my job afforded me the opportunity to actually see, hold and photograph the original text books that were used to write the constitution and build the curriculum for most of the first colleges and universities in this country. These were the books that Franklin, Jefferson and many others poured over as they were trying to write the Constitution. I couldn’t believe the history I was holding.
I shared these photos with Bishop Raphael Green. I can’t describe how awed and humbled I was to be chosen for an assignment that would place me in this position. Even though all eyes are always on Philadelphia because of The Liberty Bell Center and the National Archives Museum in Washington D.C. where you can see the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, the books from which these documents were forged are housed right here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
We are so closely connected to what's really going on that we believe that a daily prayer call is already upon us. God is waking us up every morning to pray. So let's roll with that calling.
We’re going to ask everyone to pray for us as we continue to deliver this message of freedom and deliverance in our worship. We realize our ministry style may not work in most of the United States, but for this community, with all of its deep seeded abuse, God has given us a Word and a strategy.
Most people, outside of Pennsylvania, will never really understand that the incident at Penn State, regarding the child abuse by one of the assistant football coaches, is merely the tip of the iceberg. It’s more like the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
Abuse is so commonplace in homes, schools, businesses and churches that all of these institutions are a joke to most people here. The rural communities are rampant with abuse.
Since we’ve been here, God has stripped us of all the strategies and plans that we brought from St. Louis. The way to reach the people of this community is so completely different that it appears (to those on the outside) that we are preaching heresy to reach them.
But we are simply doing what Jesus did. He released a woman caught in adultery. He went to the house of a tax collector who was cheating people. He let a woman perform a sensual act of washing his feet with her hair. He hung out with the rowdy folks. Nearly everything he did was considered close to heresy.
Now here in the 21st century, He leads us to tell the people who attend our weekly gatherings, we’re not going to force them to attend church or give money. We’re going to let God heal them. We’re just going to let God speak to them.
To people outside of this community, this looks like we’re compromising the Word of God. But when you’re dealing with severely abused and damaged people, we must minister to them in exactly the way God gives it to us.
This message and this method was not our plan. Our church family knows that there’s no way we could have known to teach and minister in this way.
Many of them have told us that the methods and messages that God gives us, always happen to be exactly what they needed and in the ONLY WAY they could have received it or heard it at that time in their life. God used THIS method and message to get past their hurt, so that they could see GOD. Every single person that has joined our church has come to us with stories of abuse in their homes, in their schools, on their jobs, and most tragically, in their churches.
We’ve heard horror stories of sexual abuse by pastors and emotional abuse by parents. It seems, by the time a person finds Urban Life, they are just about done with the church.
Yet, in most cases, they are still seeking God. For this, we are thankful.
So, here’s a short three minute clip to carry you into next Sunday.
Leaving it to the Holy Spirit to Speak: https://vimeo.com/48341494
We are overcomers, watching and praying!
