Praying Messiah into the Nations

Dear AD2-Announce Reader:

Greetings and blessings from the AD2000 International Office in Colorado Springs, with great praises to God and thanks to you for your interest in the Celebrate Messiah 2000 (CM2000) historic event in Jerusalem and Bethlehem in December 2000.

The evening of 31 December 2000, as the millennium clock turns into the 21st century, David Bryant of Concerts of Prayer International will be leading the gathering in prayer celebrating Jesus through the eight (8) stages of His life upon the earth - which will continue until the wee hours of the morning. We hope and pray many from around the world will wish to join us for those eight (8) hours in heart and spirit to praise and pray like never before unto our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus! May it be so!

To help prepare for that time, a few items will be provided to aid this process:

• David has written a special article on this all-night prayer event for PRAY magazine, for November release. They have given us special permission to release this article early, for which praise and thanks have been given. This article follows here as part of this message. May God bless you as you read, sense and pray over what's there - as an item of preparation for that time!
• Secondly, David will prepare and send additional thoughts and reflections on a monthly basis to CM2000 registrants for prayer and spiritual preparation of hearts, minds and spirits for that unique and special prayer evening. We will also share these with the AD2-Announce community. May you hunger increasingly to receive and pray over each offering - that you and we (collectively) will be prepared in soul and spirit to come before our blessed Savior in praise and thanksgiving as never before!
• Thirdly, you may wish to join with others in your area to pray over these offerings as they come forth in the coming months. Further, your small group may wish to gather New Year's Eve to spiritually join in with the gathering in Jerusalem - that the whole earth would be covered and bathed in this special "celebration of Jesus" as the clock turns to the 21st century / 3rd millennium.

P.S. Please pass this on to others in your area (or beyond!) that may not have access to this email! Thank you.

Praying Messiah into the Nations

The place: Jerusalem. The time: New Year's Eve 2000. The people: 2,500 leaders from 110 countries. The activity: eight hours of concerted prayer throughout the night. The purpose: to pray the supremacy of Messiah into the nations. The vision: to reproduce this prayer meeting all over the world. The result: should God answer us, nothing short of true biblical revival!

From December 27, 2000-January 3, 2001, the AD2000 and Beyond movement will conduct its grand finale in Celebrate Messiah 2000. After a full decade of worldwide mobilization toward reaching unreached peoples, this international mission coalition plans will cease to exist. It will be replaced by scores of international networks and projects, designed to keep the heartbeat of the AD2000 movement alive for years to come.

Prayer has dominated the AD2000 movement from its inception, maybe more than any similar coalition in church history. That's why Luis Bush (AD2000 international director) and his team felt compelled to set aside an entire night for prayer at the Jerusalem congress, designating it as a full plenary session to be attended by all delegates (not just prayer leaders). They have asked me to help shape and guide the session. Using Colossians 1:24-29 as a foundation, the session will be called "Messiah Supreme: Among Us, For Nations."

So, in the place where Messiah gave the Great Commission . . . in the place where a 10-day corporate prayer meeting became the divine fountainhead for major Kingdom advances . . . in the place where a "great awakening" transformed a first century empire . . . in the place where New Testament-style revival marked its claim . . . thousands of Christian leaders will unite to seek God for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this generation. As we do, we will welcome the dawn of the true Third Millennium (January 1, 2001).

Here's how we will approach praying the supremacy of Messiah into the church and the nations:

We'll open and close with hope-filled worship-worship that focuses not only on what God already has done in world evangelization, but also on what He is preparing to do to fully establish Messiah's supremacy throughout the earth. Such worship may arise from songs, prayers, reports, and testimonies, as well as a litany of verbal praises. Concluding worship will glorify God by expressing our confidence that He will answer us.

The eight themes we will use come from the major events of Messiah's life and ministry. Fundamentally, our prayers will ask the Father to replicate each one, by the Spirit's power, throughout the worldwide advance of the gospel. In summary, here's what 2,500 leaders will seek:

BIRTH: that God would replicate through His people, for the sake of nations, works of revelation, identification, and invasion-all of which marked Messiah's incarnation.

BAPTISM: that God would replicate the launch of Messiah's public mission by igniting new missionary activity throughout the church.

TEMPTATION: that God would reenact Messiah's victory over Satan, multiplying our triumphs over the powers of darkness wherever the gospel goes.

TRANSFIGURATION: that God would replicate a fresh manifestation of Messiah's glory, through a powerful visitation of the Spirit upon His people that gives us eyes to see and hearts to obey Messiah.

CRUCIFIXION: that God would cause the church to revisit the cross, embracing its full work for us and increasing our desire to preach Messiah crucified to all who are lost.

RESURRECTION: that God would revitalize our experience of being buried and raised with Messiah to walk in newness of life, so that the unreached might believe our claims about His defeat of death.

ASCENSION: that God would confirm and vindicate the supremacy of Messiah within His church and over all the peoples of the earth.

RETURN: that God would reawaken Christians everywhere to the great hope of the Consummation, making us ready to do whatever it takes to complete the Great Commission and bring back the King.

Four focuses will occupy us as we work through the eight themes. They will be repeated, in order, for each segment, but with creative variety.

CELEBRATION. We will praise God for promises related to each theme.

PREPARATION. We will encourage a brief meditation to clarify our biblical understanding of what praying for each theme entails.

INTERCESSION. We will pray facets of each theme into the church, locally or worldwide; then into the nations, including our own.

CONSECRATION. We will dedicate ourselves more fully to Messiah, to live more consistently with what we've prayed, and to be part of the answers to our prayers no matter what the cost.

Well, that's how we'll pray in Jerusalem on December 3lst. And you can join us, right where you are. You don't necessarily have to schedule the whole eight hours. You could start with five minutes on each theme. Including opening and closing worship that would amount to about an hour.

What a memorable way to enter the Third Millennium. What a vision of revival it could paint for you and those who join you. And what a mission for any prayer meeting to take on: Praying the supremacy of our Messiah into a whole generation-and waiting with joy for the answers!

This article is used by permission of Pray! magazine. It will appear in the Nov/Dec. issue of Pray!. To receive a risk-free issue of Pray!, call 1-800-691-7729 (U.S.) or 1-760-781-5219. Subscription rates: $19.97 per year, ($24.97, foreign).

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