This upcoming Sunday, April 26th, churches across America are being asked to participate in a STAND FOR MARRIAGE SUNDAY. This is because on Tuesday, April 28th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments FOR and AGAINST redefining marriage in America. Though marriage between a man and a woman has existed since the beginning and is the cornerstone of ordered society, this time-honored institution is in serious trouble. Before federal judges began to overturn marriage laws, 30 states had protected natural marriage in their Constitutions. Now the High Court of the entire nation is poised to decide for all of us, even against the will of the majority.
So this Sunday, we are being encouraged, along with thousands of pastors and millions of church members, to view a brief video, receive some pertinent information, and then spend time during our gathering, in focused prayer for the Court and our Country.
On this Saturday, April 25th, the Christian Community is uniting in Washington, D.C for a MARCH FOR MARRIAGE, in order to send a message to the Court that we will not stand by silently while family and freedom hang in the balance.
Since April 7th, many Believers have been participating in a 21-Day Prayer and Fast, leading up to the oral arguments. There has also been the establishment of a special website called Pray4Marriage.
You may ask, WHY, in the midst of your own personal family crisis, trials and transitions, are we focusing on all of this Supreme Court stuff?
It is because we are now facing, perhaps, the single greatest threat to our families in our life time. This is not only a threat to your marriage and family, but this is a severe threat to your freedom to practice your faith in public or even in the privacy of your homes.
As you guys know, the Lord told us to come to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Rebuild, Restore and Renew Hearts and Homes. Over the last few years, the Lord has led us in a long series of prayer strategies that included the titles: Restoring the Gates and Walls of Our Hearts and Homes, Fight For Your Family, and Guarding Our Hearts and Homes.
Last year, He told us to call the entire year, An Open Door for Healing in Hearts and Homes. This year, HE has led us to change the name of our weekly gatherings to the Family Prayer Room. When you look back over the years and observe how the Lord has led us step by step, you will see that all along HE has been preparing us for THIS day in America.
This is why HE would not allow us to leave this area, just yet. He wanted us positioned in the very State where the original vision for this nation was seeded. We have come to a sovereign and holy moment in our nation's history and we are asking you to stand with us.
As your pastors, we have resolved to preach the TRUTH and boldly proclaim the Word of the Lord, especially as it relates to the salvation and restoration of the family. It may place us in the middle of great political controversy, but our position is not about politics. Our stand is a stand FOR the righteous rule and reign of God; the Kingdom of God.
It just so happens that THIS Sunday is our family-focused session, so it's easy to embrace STAND FOR MARRIAGE and Pray4Marriage into our agenda for this week. Once again, we will record and webcast to our online audience, sending out the word of the Lord across Harrisburg, the entire state, the nation, and the world. The Lord has instructed us to release these words, exhortations and prayers into the atmosphere and into cyberspace because more is happening in the spiritual realm than we can observe in the natural world.
Will you stand with us?
We are taking another step as we continue to overcome, under orders.
It's all for the harvest,
Chris and Carol Green
All we can say is that God is making the direction and mission of Urban Life even more clear. Day by day, our understanding continues to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Throughout this spring and summer, we will be webcasting directly to our online global community. Last Sunday, we announced the start of a new weekly internet outreach called the Family Prayer Room, from which we will speak and minister directly to our online global community. We are now inviting local residents to join the intercessors and Urban Life family in this prayer room session, as we stand in the gap for hearts and homes in this region and all over the world.
Over the next few months, you will also notice slight name changes and format adjustments in everything from our website to our weekly gatherings. We thought we were headed back to the Midwest, but instead, God has revealed several doors of local, national and international ministry, opening especially this fall. As we anticipate the fall months of this year, we are currently making very intentional steps to prepare for a new and expanded ministry. One of those steps involves establishing Harrisburg as our base of operation.
We are also establishing a local and international prayer community. We are establishing a solid ministry team that will handle everything from administration and bookkeeping, to our online technical support and intercessory prayer. It is our desire that our team will handle incoming calls, incoming emails, and incoming prayer requests. They will also handle outgoing messages, international correspondence, and help us manage our national and international travel arrangements.
By the time we launch out into our international ministry in September, our team should be ready to continue to maintain our weekly Family Prayer Room. In fact, the Lord led us to get the anointing oil and dedicate the first of our team into this new level of service.
We are very excited as God continues to lead us into this new dimension and strategy of our family-focused ministry of prayer.
Stay tuned and stay connected as we take these bold steps into our ordained destiny.
We are very thankful that you guys are praying for us as we continue to seek God's face about the future for Urban Life. In last week's Midweek Connection, we presented many of our questions, but this week we can report that God has sent His word.
On the last Sunday in March, we ministered together at Cumberland Valley Church in Mechanicsburg, PA. After sharing in song and the word, the Lord led the pastor and the congregation to pray for us. As the Cumberland Valley Church congregation prayed for us, they had no idea what challenges we were facing. The Lord had previously promised that we would have a clear word by the first of April. He fulfilled that promise by sending this prophetic charge:
* When Chris started to pray I heard these words and this is a very hard thing for all of us to understand. God is negotiating for us. We want to do the negotiation out of our power, our strength and our might. But God spoke to me very plainly. This is for you Chris, too and your wife. God is negotiating for us.
We need to step back and know who our God is and not try to negotiate; to negotiate for something that we might want, but let Him negotiate for us. We don’t want to get ahead of Him. We want to walk with Him because He is our negotiator. A lot of us don’t know that, but He is our negotiator, and He will do what is best for each and every one of us, if we let Him negotiate for us.
Sometimes we try to manipulate Him which turns into witchcraft. We cannot manipulate Him. We have to let Him do the negotiating. We are seated in heavenly places and we have a right to His throne room, but it all comes down to... “not my will, but Your will Lord. And I cast down my selfish desires and what I think is best for me, and I just submit myself to Your authority, and I give my life over to You, and my situations over to You; because I know that You are my God.” ...and let Him do the negotiating. Let Him do the negotiating.
* Lord, I want to thank You for the seed that he (Pastor Chris) has been willing to sow; and for the time that they’ve put in, in the sowing room. As sure as we know that there’s a time for sowing and a time for harvest, we thank You that You are bringing them into a season of harvest, Lord. We thank You Lord; we thank You!
* You think you have seen rivers of living water? You have not seen the flood that I am about to pour through you for the Kingdom of God; that I am preparing you for. Your whole life has been a preparation for what I am bringing you into, and you have been found faithful. You have been found a servant of the Most High God; for I will flow rivers and floods and tsunamis. And everything that you can imagine, it will be beyond that, says the Lord.
For you are my children; you are my son and my daughter of the Most High God and I will open your vision. You will see things and hear things that you thought you could never hear and see; but I am going to broaden your vision and extend your tent stakes; that they are going to be so beyond things, that you are going to say, “Only but God, only but God could do something like this!”
And I am going to put people around you that have the vision that you have, because I am going to spread it in their minds as well. And they are going to hook hands with you and join with you all over this town and this city and this area; and you’re going to make a wall for God, a wall for God, and a high tower for the kingdom of God.
All we can say is YES and Amen!
Ever since September of 2014, when Abby Abildness released a profound prophetic word over us and this ministry, everywhere we have gone, God has given us confirmation after confirmation. Each person that has spoken into our lives has declared that God is doing far more than we could possibly imagine.
After ten long years of toil, we were beginning to think that our role in this community was over. We felt that, perhaps, we were sent to just prepare the soil and plant a few seeds, and it was time for us to move on to another assignment. However, the Lord has made it clear that our role in this community is not quite finished.
By the way, that night was our first speaking engagement in this new era. That night marked the 10th anniversary of our public ministry in this community. Now all aspects of the foundational years of Urban Life have been completed. We have truly stepped into a brand new season.
Now we must all prepare for whatever God desires to do in our hearts, homes, community and ministry.
It's all for the harvest,
Chris and Carol Green
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