From May 23-May 25, just before the Transfer Conference in Orlando, each church in Sovereign Grace Ministries will be sending an elder(s) to represent them at the gathering of our first Council of Elders Meeting. Because of the significance of this special gathering, we are calling the members of Sovereign Grace churches to 3 weeks of prayer leading up to this important meeting.

Friends, will you join with us in praying for these meetings? We have created a Prayer Guide. It contains information on the following:

• Preparing your heart for prayer
• How to pray for an hour (for those who want to devote more time to prayer)
• Information on fasting
• Scripture readings to ignite faith
• Prayer requests
• Promises to fill your prayers

We encourage you to join with hundreds of others who will be praying during this time. We trust God to hear our prayers and bring much glory to himself by answering the prayers of many!

"You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." 2 Cor 1:11

A Journey Of Faith (1.46 mb)

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Over the next ten days many pastors of Sovereign Grace churches will give focused time to prayer leading up to our polity ratification vote on April 12^th. We invite you to join us in praying for unity at this historic time for our ministry.

As Charles Spurgeon famously said, “No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.” We completely agree! Would you consider joining us over the next 10 days in intercession for the churches of Sovereign Grace Ministries?

To serve those who can participate, we have prepared a guide listing relevant passages to pray over and structure to follow. It was prepared with Sovereign Grace pastors specifically in mind but we pass it on as a resource for your use as well. 

The structure of the prayer guide includes:

• Meditating on specific passages
• Praying over insights gained
• Worshiping
• Listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit
• Confessing 
• Faith declarations
• Battle praying
• Praying the promises of God for SGM
• Praying for the Holy Spirit to be at work among SG pastors
• Prayers of surrender and consecration
• Praying for God to be glorified in the decision
• Prayers of gratitude

Thank you for considering this most meaningful form of partnership at this critical time for our churches. We are most grateful for your partnership!

Praying for Our Unity.pdf

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What exactly do we mean when we talk about “Communion with God”? It would be helpful if we came up with a working definition so we have some agreement on what we are talking about.

As we have studied Jesus’ relationship with the Father, we have seen an emphasis on His thinking, speaking, and doing God’s will flowing from His close communion with God.

As a result, the working definition of “Communion with God” I would like to propose is as follows: 

Living content within God’s will by maintaining a continuous “faith-sense” of His presence

• “Living content” speaks to the fact that communion with God dispels restlessness and a striving with or against God. Those experiencing communion with God live in contented peace regardless of their circumstances (Matt 8:24).
• “Within God’s will” speaks to the fact that communion with God is not some “ecstatic experience” of God that is detached from down-to-earth godliness.
• “Maintaining a continuous faith-sense” speaks to the reality that communion with God is experienced through active faith.
• “Faith-sense” speaks to the fact that we commune with God not on the basis of our feelings, but through our trust in what Scripture declares to be true; namely, that His Spirit dwells within each believer who has trusted in Jesus Christ.

I believe that our communion with God tangibly affects our relationship to God’s will at 3 levels.

1. The core level is the Moral Will of God. As we experience communion with God, we respond to Scripture with a faith-generated obedience. God’s will is revealed in every command; many narrative examples; as well as in the wisdom principles of Scripture. And these apply to everyone, everywhere, without exception. This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality. 1 Thess 4:3
2. The next level of God’s Will is what I call the Moment-by-Moment Will of God. This involves the guidance of the Holy Spirit in specific ways that only apply to the individual at that very moment (not to everyone everywhere in the way Scripture does). The Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." Acts 8:29
3. The third level of God’s Will is what I call the Mysterious Will of God. It involves the secret providence of God as He works in our circumstances and weaves His secret purposes into our lives for our eternal good. You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Gen. 50:20

How then does ones “Communion with God” affect these three areas of our lives? Our communion with God empowers us, through the filling of the Holy Spirit, to respond “supernaturally” rather than just “naturally” to God’s will for us!

Communion with God empowers our choices so that we freely delight to do God’s will found in Scripture (Ps 119:36-37, Ps 40:8). Communion with God empowers our heart to “hear” the Spirit’s voice as He gives us specific moment-by-moment guidance (Acts 10:19-20, Acts 13:2). Communion with God also empowers us to accept God’s providential will for our lives. We are enabled to trust God in the good times; the mundane times; and the dark and difficult times, knowing that everything that comes our way first passes through his Fatherly hand.

So working backward from the fruit to the root in these 3 areas, we are better able to evaluate the strength of our communion with God. Here are a few questions that may be helpful to ask:

1. Are there any sins in my life that seem to control my will? Are there any areas of obedience that I seem “unable” to think, speak or do?
2. Is the specific guidance of the Holy Spirit something I experience regularly? Do I earnestly desire that the Holy Spirit will speak through prophetic words to the church? Have I made myself available to Him for this? (1 Cor 12:7 & 14:1)
3. When I do not understand what God is doing in my life, do I tend to yield to fear, anger or despair? Or am I able to accept what I don’t understand with a peace beyond human understanding? (Phil 4:6-7, Isa 26:3)

Rather than seeking to exert change in these areas, we need to gently press into our relationship with God through communion with Him. We will examine what this looks like in more detail next time.

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Tim has spent half his life in Asia. He grew up in India, the son of missionary parents, and after returning to Canada for several years, he moved to Japan where he was involved in church planting for 12 years. He has been the pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Toronto since its inception 8 years ago. Tim is married with 4 children aged 18 to 25.

 

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The busyness of life shouldn't keep us from prayer over the Scriptures but it often does. Though this is primarily a spiritual problem, sometimes there are practical obstacles in the way as well. This year, our church is working on a practical resource to help jump start peoples fellowship with God in the word and prayer. We are calling it "Meditations on Mercy."

These meditations are a short spotlight on one or two verses with a few brief comments and a question or two. For those with a regular quiet time, this will hopefully serve as a healthy supplement. To those with little or no quiet time, this resource will hopefully "jump start" their batteries and get things moving once again. I also think these brief mediations are well suited to times of family worship.

January's theme was "Steadfast Love." February's theme is "Simple Patterns of Prayer." Simple one or two verse prayers are presented each day. Some are so short they can be easily memorized and spoken throughout the day in short bursts of prayer and vocalized trust. The primary intent of this month's mini-prayer focus is to show us that prayers need not be long to be effective. Becoming acquainted with the hundreds of prayers in the Bible is one of the best ways to learn how to pray powerfully and with faith!

Download the PDF: Meditations On Mercy - Simple Patterns of Prayer

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Tim Kerr is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Toronto. Tim grew up in Kolkata, India where his missionary parents were involved in church planting and teaching at the Calcutta Bible College connected to the historic Carey Baptist Church. After marriage, Tim and his wife Joanne served in Japan for 12 years as church planters. When they returned to Canada, Tim led a one-on-one mentoring ministry for several years that greatly impacted Christian businessmen, pastors, and church planters in Ontario. This strong mentoring ministry has continued in the Sovereign Grace Church, which he planted in 2004. Tim and Joanne have 4 children, ages 17-24.

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Have you ever considered the extent to which the Holy Spirit could guide a believer in their daily life? Is it possible for a person's every thought to be guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit throughout the day? Is it actually realistic to think that the Holy Spirit could guide a believer in their exact choice of words—what to say, how to say it, and when to say it? To be moved in all our actions under the direct and specific guidance of God?

I’m sure that to some the very idea seems hopelessly unrealistic and theoretical idealism. But to others the concept touches upon a deep cord of longing that there may actually be a way of living with God that transcends their present experience. It is for these second types that this present article is being written. It will require several blog posts to attempt to do the subject justice. I hope we will be able to reflect on this once or twice a month together for a little while.

We must begin by carefully investigating to see if there is any theological justification for such a proposal in the first place. Do we have any record of anyone in the Old or New Testaments who lived in moment by moment surrender to God through the power of the Holy Spirit? Consider the following remarkable verses of scripture:

"I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 5:30

Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him." John 8:28-29

“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment--what to say and what to speak.” John 12:49

In these verses Jesus reveals how he operates. All his actions are scripted by the Father - “I can do nothing on my own”. All his thoughts are guided and following the mind of another - “As I hear, I judge”. Every single word spoken is done according to divine instructions – “I speak just as the Father taught me”. Amazing to ponder. As a man, Jesus lived under the authority of his Father in everything.

Now some might quickly respond, “Wonderful, yes. But what is the relationship to us? This just shows us that the Son was one with the Father in all things, pointing to his divine identity. That is the point of John’s gospel after all”

The fact that Jesus did this perfectly and without any stain of sin surely shows him to be utterly unique among all those born of women. This cannot be contested.

But is this entirely descriptive, or may it also be prescriptive for us? I think there is a strong hint within the book of John itself that these kind of statements are paradigmatic for the church—a template for imitation--even if our sin-stained and imperfect imitation is but a dim reflection of Christ’s perfect life of obedience to the Father.

When we look at the following passage of Scripture, Jesus clearly says that his actions and words are something he expects his followers to imitate. He expects us to live the way he lived:

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works…. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. John 14:10, 12

Inspiring! Frightening. Faith-building. And cause to ponder—don’t you think?

In part two, we will examine what this amazing promise has to do with the Holy Spirit…and with our prayers. But that will need to wait until next time.

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Tim has spent half his life in Asia. He grew up in India, the son of missionary parents, and after returning to Canada for several years, he moved to Japan where he was involved in church planting for 12 years. He has been the pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Toronto since its inception 8 years ago. Tim is married with 4 children aged 18 to 25.

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Prayer. It’s a discipline of the Christian life that we all agree is important yet few believe they sufficiently practice. When measured against God’s Word we all too often miss the mark.

• “pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
• “praying at all times in the Spirit…making supplication for all the saints” Ephesians 6:18
• “pray for one another…” James 5:16
• “in everything by prayer…let your request be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6

Perhaps considering these passages, along with others, leads you to resolve or re-resolve to grow in the discipline of prayer in 2013. 

For your encouragement, Tim Kerr has written many helpful posts this past year on the topic. We've linked to these below for your benefit: 

• Prayer and the Busy, Distracted Life
• If Prayer Is Such A Good Thing, Why Does It Seem So Hard?
• The Rhythm of Prayer
• Receiving Grace Through Prayer
• How We Receive the Grace to Keep Praying
• 10 Practical Ways to Cultivate Prayer in Your Church
• Pastors, Devote Yourselves to the Word and Prayer 

May we further "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" this coming year. (Philippians 3:14)

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A Praying Generation

Many years ago, when I was still a teenager, my dad pastored a church that had a weekly prayer meeting of about 50 people. What made that prayer meeting somewhat unique was that it was filled with people who prayed as their ministry in the church. Many of them were single women who were very powerful in prayer. 

One of those ladies was a woman by the name of Evangeline Paisley. She was a thin little wisp of a woman—not more than 80 pounds. She had had surgery to remove cancer on her nose so half her nose was missing. She was in her eighties and prayed for hours every day. When she started to pray, the atmosphere in the room changed!

Then there was Miss Cork and Miss Cullin. They lived together for most of their lives. I always felt Miss Cork prayed with such an authority! She asked with such a bold confidence and seemed to be on such intimate terms with her God. I had never heard anyone pray that that!

All these dear friends have passed away and are now with the Savior they loved so dearly.

What stirs my heart when I consider them is: “Where are the praying ones of this generation to fill the gap that they have left?”

Future Generations That Seek God In Prayer

How do these kind of people emerge in our churches? If they do not exist right now, can we do anything to develop them? Where do these people come from?

In Matthew 6:6 we find instructions from Jesus to “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father”. This is the priority of personal prayer. Then later in Matthew 21:13 Jesus tells us “My house shall be called a house of prayer”. That’s the priority of corporate prayer.

My friends, we have many believers in our churches who have never moved from the “room” to the “house” of prayer!

I believe the key to this lies in a place that is going to make us feel somewhat uncomfortable. It lies with those of us who are pastors.

Pastors That Lead In Corporate Prayer

Corporate prayer meetings allow our congregations to see and hear us praying—for praying is more caught than taught! Thankfully, the great gift of the gospel is the Holy Spirit, and he helps us with our struggle in this area! 

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). There is a grace for prayer and a grace through prayer - “On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased” (Psalm 138:3).

Is it possible to grow a new generation of people devoted to prayer? While only God can do this, here are a few suggested “grace-steps” to position us for God’s activity:

1. Pastoral teams devote a quarter of their meeting times together to praying together. Talk with God, not just with each other.
2. Pastors starting to pray with their wives 1-2 times a week for 20-30 minutes. Connecting our marriages to instant grace!
3. Pastors beginning a corporate Prayer Meeting in the church where all the pastors and their wives participate (unless the children are very young). What a value this communicates about what matters!
4. Have the corporate prayer meeting once a month or twice a month to begin (Prayer Meetings need to be given time to develop momentum—walk first, then run)
5. Keep the Prayer Meeting to one hour initially. Include singing, short teaching on prayer (10-15 min), and 30 minutes of solid prayer.
6. Give clear instructions about how to pray (if in a large group “speak up” etc). Give clear instructions about what to pray (“for the next 5-7 minutes we want to pray about our need of revival using the following three promises of Scripture”)
7. Train small group leaders to guide people in prayer using simple instructions. Sometimes break into groups of 5-8, sometimes groups of 3-5, and sometimes groups of 2-3 depending on the content.
8. Remind everyone often of the gospel provisions for prayer—The Holy Spirit, the Word of God, other peoples examples, and even prayer itself. Like driving, we learn to pray in the doing more than the studying of it!
9. Teach the church to pray specifically. This requires faith. This makes the answers that come all the more precious!
10. Regularly remind them of answers to prayer. Have people share testimonies of answer to prayer in church services and at Prayer Meeting. These build faith!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the present younger generation in Sovereign Grace churches grew into powerful people of prayer in their senior years?! We will be what we are becoming---so let's plan today for that tomorrow! 

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Tim Kerr is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto. Tim grew up in Kolkata, India where his missionary parents were involved in church planting and teaching at the Calcutta Bible College connected to the historic Carey Baptist Church. After marriage, Tim and his wife Joanne served in Japan for 12 years as church planters. When they returned to Canada, Tim led a one-on-one mentoring ministry for several years that greatly impacted Christian businessmen, pastors, and church planters in Ontario. This strong mentoring ministry has continued in the Sovereign Grace Church, which he planted in 2004. Tim and Joanne have 4 children aged 17-24.

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“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night" (Psalm 92:1-2).

Thankfulness and Declarations of Faith

Goodness is, in part, expressed by thankfulness—“it is good to give thanks to the Lord.” This puts us in memory of verses like Colossians 2:7 and Colossians 3:17. In fact, gratitude is so powerful that it is presented as the polar opposite and the “cure” to impurity in Ephesians 5:4!

Note the rhythm of prayer that regulates the grateful spirit in Psalm 92:1-2. We find two faith declarations here:

• A declaration of anticipation in the morning
• And a declaration flowing from reflection in the evening

Two bookends to the day both punctuated by gratitude.

Daily Rhythm of Prayer

We start the day with a faith-filled spoken anticipation of meeting God’s steadfast love for “his mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). This is gratitude for what is to come. Even if the day contains trials or unexpected sadness in it, we can face the day with the unwavering confidence that “nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Then at day’s end, we purposefully reflect on the happenings of the day and declare God’s faithfulness out to Him. We express gratitude for his never changing faithfulness, even if we have been faithless—“Great is your faithfulness!”

Would you be willing to seek to practice this simple rhythm of prayer over this Christmas season? It may well help you catch the sweetness of the season in a brand new way!

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Tim Kerr is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto. Tim grew up in Kolkata, India where his missionary parents were involved in church planting and teaching at the Calcutta Bible College connected to the historic Carey Baptist Church. After marriage, Tim and his wife Joanne served in Japan for 12 years as church planters. When they returned to Canada, Tim led a one-on-one mentoring ministry for several years that greatly impacted Christian businessmen, pastors, and church planters in Ontario. This strong mentoring ministry has continued in the Sovereign Grace Church, which he planted in 2004. Tim and Joanne have 4 children aged 17-24.

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There are two unhelpful yet common ways that we tend to deal with habitual sin in our lives.

One way is to resolve to do better by increasing our discipline and commitment going forward. We resolve to pray more, meditate on scripture more, wake up earlier for devotions, start reading a good book, etc. 

The second common way of dealing with lapses into sin is to get discouraged. We start to feel that the battle is hopeless and unwinnable.

So we sink down, sometimes by degrees, sometimes by large drops, into ever increasing despair.

The reason both of these “solutions” fail is because they center on oneself. One way looks to self-discipline as the way out of sinful patterns. The other looks to self-pity as the only reasonable response to sin patterns. With both we end up in the wrong place.

This is where prayer can help. Rather than resolving to “pray more” we should rather just pray—right then and there. The amazing thing about praying is that as soon as you engage in it, you are instantaneously connected to God and his grace.

Note how Paul teaches this pattern in Romans 6:

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Romans 6:13

He surprises us here by his solution regarding the fight with sin. We expect him to say “but present your members to righteousness." That would seem to be the exact parallel. But he doesn’t say that. Instead he says “but present yourselves to God." We need to move away from ourselves altogether, from our resolutions and feelings, and go straight to God in prayer.

Paul knew that the answer to sin wasn’t harnessed will-power pulling in the opposite direction of sinful urges, but enabling grace found by an opened channel to God!

Here’s the lesson. When tempted - pray. When we have given in to sin - pray. When we see others giving in to sin - pray. When sin is close to our own heart or others, don’t let the first move of our heart be a horizontal act of willpower or “positive thinking” but rather a vertical act of surrender and dependence. Step in the shower stall of grace and let the mercy and grace of God soak you to the bone!

Then, like an iPad that has charged its battery from an external outlet, we let the power received work in us to help us make the necessary alterations, decisions or attitude adjustments in our soul. Grace flows freely through the yielded soul!

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:12-13

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Tim Kerr is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto. Tim grew up in Kolkata, India where his missionary parents were involved in church planting and teaching at the Calcutta Bible College connected to the historic Carey Baptist Church. After marriage, Tim and his wife Joanne served in Japan for 12 years as church planters. When they returned to Canada, Tim led a one-on-one mentoring ministry for several years that greatly impacted Christian businessmen, pastors, and church planters in Ontario. This strong mentoring ministry has continued in the Sovereign Grace Church, which he planted in 2004. Tim and Joanne have 4 children aged 17-24.

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Each year when we go on our family vacation, we load our van with every imaginable piece of luggage for every possible need we might have while away from home. Each year I declare with great faith that it’s not going to all fit and that it is not possible to load the essentials of a three bedroom home into one small van. Each year we nonetheless try, with that inevitable large red cooler coming out when the van is packed so tight it would be hard to find a space for a stray sock. At that point I usually drop to my knees, drop my face into my hands and sob, “no, no, no—I just got it all to fit!”.

It strikes me that this is the way many of us try to pray. We are determined to pack our lives as full as possible, and into our tightly packed schedule we struggle to fit in the large and essential item we call prayer. It should fit—but there just doesn’t seem to be any room.

The avalanche of daily responsibilities seems to tumble upon us each new day and prayer never seems as urgent as that email that needs to be answered, or that blog that needs to be written, or that unfinished assignment on your desk at work, or trying to beat the rush hour by leaving early for work.

We cannot afford to try to fit prayer into our crowded lives because it will likely not fit and get left behind. God never intended prayer to be the stray sock we jam into our tightly packed lives. Prayer is not to be an after thought but one of the big items we pack first.

Let me share a few thoughts that I have found helpful with regard to the problem of “fitting in” prayer to overloaded, busy lives.

1. Be careful to pack the car with the big stuff first. In the past, my wife and I tried to get away for two days or so a year to re-examine our priorities and make sure our schedule reflected what we felt was most important. Lately, we get together for an hour or so every week to do the same and pray about it. The weekly meetings keep us on track with far less drift than months of non-reflection on the treadmill. At each meeting we have an action plan—decisions that need to be implemented immediately—many which involve focused prayer. If you are a single person, perhaps you can do this with a trusted friend a few times a year. Others may like to review things at the start of each week and schedule time for prayer before the schedule fills up. 

2. Cultivate a Christ-seeking life, empowered by the Spirit. Set times of prayer flow most easily when we “live” as worshippers of Christ all the time. Compartmentalized prayer easily becomes a weight and obligation tied around our neck that we can come to subtly resent. The grace to pray comes from a life “lived” in the Spirit, and that is the fruit of a Christ captured life. What we need is the “song” that the Spirit gives. When we have the song in our hearts (the joy of communion with Christ), the work of prayer is less a burden and more of a “labor of grace”. In other words, we fit prayer in best, when we are communicating with the Lord a lot. It’s always easier to talk to a close friend than a complete stranger! Our life with the Lord is never sweeter than when we are experiencing the song of His communion with us! Do you hear his song? (Zephaniah 3:17) At night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8 

3. Whenever we say “yes” to something, at the same moment we say “no” to something else. There is only so much time. We only have so much strength and capacity. Prayer is one of the important items that we struggle to say yes to in the now, but somehow find easy to say yes to if projected into the future. But whenever we say yes to praying in the “now” we win a personal battle as well as the battle for those we are praying for. Yet a yes to prayer means a no to something else—always. Maybe it’s a no to more sleep, or no to an extra amount of time in the shower getting ready, or no to a TV show we enjoy watching, or no to an overly committed and cluttered schedule—often crammed with church activities.

These three suggestions are like a sandwich. The meat is in the center. Suggestion #1 and #3 are best carried out as an overflow of #2. So great is the offering of Christ that God welcomes us into the fellowship of the Godhead!! When we respond to this ultimate welcome, we will find it easier to decide to put lesser things aside for it!

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Tim Kerr is the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Toronto. Tim grew up in Kolkata, India where his missionary parents were involved in church planting and teaching at the Calcutta Bible College connected to the historic Carey Baptist Church. After marriage, Tim and his wife Joanne served in Japan for 12 years as church planters. When they returned to Canada, Tim led a one-on-one mentoring ministry for several years that greatly impacted Christian businessmen, pastors, and church planters in Ontario. This strong mentoring ministry has continued in the Sovereign Grace Church, which he planted in 2004. Tim and Joanne have 4 children aged 17-24.

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