Prayer

Prayer is an opportunity to spend time with God. To really understand the heart of God, you need to pray. In John 15:15, Jesus says He no longer calls us his servants, but calls us His friends. Talking with God develops a deeper relationship with Him. During lock down this day has become an entire day of prayer with someone praying every hour.

Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons God has given us. We turn to prayer because it is the most personal way to experience God, to encounter Him and to grow in knowledge of Him. We encourage everyone to make prayer a part of your daily life.

Fasting

Fasting is an essential part of this special day.

Fasting is a deliberate abstinence from physical gratification, usually going without food for a period of time in order to achieve a greater spiritual goal. Fasting is intentionally denying the flesh in order to gain a response from the spirit; it means renouncing the natural in order to invoke the supernatural.

We urge everyone to fast for the day and put aside the time saved for God. You don’t have to fast from food, you can fast from TV or Netflix, social media or even your phone.

All we ask is that the time you would normally spend doing this activity is actually spent seeking God, listening for His voice and giving Him your undivided attention regularly throughout the course of the day.

 Day of Prayer and Fasting

, Usually, on the 1st day of each month, we encourage the whole church to join in a day of
prayer and fasting. To begin 2025, we will hold our day on the 11th of January, instead of the first, as part of our Week of Prayer.

Prayer and fasting is a sign of our desire and hunger to seek God. Through prayer and fasting, we develop a passion for God that supersedes everything else. When this happens, the Holy Spirit begins to flow into us, allowing us to live above our circumstances and low self expectations.

To help plan our day of prayer, we use a 24-7 prayer room and publish notes to help you pray for the hour you choose. You can book an hour prayer slot through the newsletter link the week before or by clicking on the button below.To book and hour slot during our day of prayer and fasting, please click on the button below.

Prayer Notes for our
Day of Prayer and Fasting

This month we’re going to split the hour session in half. The first half will be to do with personal devotion and reflection, the second will concentrate on praying for the life of the church. 

To have a spirit filled and spirit led church,
we need spirit filled and spirit led people.

To have a church which follows Jesus,
we need people who follow Jesus.

To have a church which has spirit filled Jesus led prayer, worship and obedience
we need people who are spirit filled, and Jesus led people.

We each have a responsibility before God and one another towards this. 

Worship

Take a moment to read Psalm 23 and use it for some moments of thanksgiving and worship.

Include: here are three things I am thankful to God for today, for example, v1- God himself, v2 - renewal, v3 - guidance, v4 - protection, v5 - presence, v6 - heaven.

Questions

Consider John Wesley’s 22 questions of personal holiness, devotion, and accountability.  Take your time, to read and prayer and to be honest. Click HERE to download the sheet.

 There will be four responses to these questions if done properly. 

1.     Yes, this is me and I need to reflect and be honest before God about it.

2.     No, this is not me, and there is no more for me to do.

3.     This might be me; I’m going to need to pray but also ask a friend for some honest help in regard to this.

4.     I don’t really understand and will need to chat to someone.

These 22 questions are not purely for one day. Try and have an initial read through and pray within the first half of your time and then revisit them at a later time.

Prayer

The second half of our time should be focussed on the work of the church.

1.     We’ll pray for the spiritual life of the church, its worship, its prayer and its obedience to Gods voice in His Word and through His Spirit.

2.     For Sunday services, mornings and evening; for life groups and devotional gatherings to be Jesus cent
red, God inhabited, and Spirit led.

3.     For our ministries into the community, and the world, for those who gather for meals, for children’s events, for youth events, for pastoral, and information events.

4.     We need prayer for the resourcing and arranging of the church, for the administration, communication, and organisation; for rotas to be filled, and for opportunities to be taken.

5.     We’ll pray for March events, for the church meeting, for Easter preparation, schools assemblies, for the reconciliation course and for all of the church activities in March.

6.     We’ll pray for the church staff; David, Sarah, Steve, and Mary-Ann. We’ll pray for the church leadership team; Viv Watson, Kevin Ling, Barbara Newton, Anuran Wickramasinghe, Mike Plowman, Parmjit Moyo, Dan Declaudure-Gardener, Tracey Skeggs, and Neil Wood.  For each of these we pray renewal, protection and blessing.

7.     We also pray for our worship team led by Nigel Brown and Debbie Wood, and for our prayer ministry team led by Michelle Russell. 

In all of these we give thanks and praise for God who provides for all our needs.

Where He guides, there He provides..

Breakthrough Prayer Clinic

If you would like to have someone pray for you, please email prayerministry@northchurch.com to book an appointment in person or online.

Alternatively, you can check out our Prayer Clinic Page.

Spiritual Rhythm

We believe that a regular spiritual rhythm plays a key role in our walk with God. That's why on Tuesdays we have our rhythm of prayer throughout the day. We would encourage people to get involved with prayer.

To see all our prayer meetings, just click Spiritual Rhythm.