Praying for the Children

Hello everyone and welcome to Wednesday Night Live. This is Ron Crawford coming to you from the Father's Church in Dallas, Texas. And it is such a blessing to reach out to our Saints family, both here at the Father's Church, but also throughout so many places around the world, and to share what God would wanna release from this house today. It's quite an honor, quite a blessing. We're so happy that you're joining with us.

At our church here in Dallas tonight, we have a special time of prayer beginning at 06:00. And for those of you who are part of this congregation and you you remember that we're having prayer tonight, let this be another reminder. But the objective of our prayer time tonight goes along with something that we as saints need to remember as our responsibility. You know, we have tried our very best to to seek the Lord and to obey what he tells us to do and to go where he tells us to go in so many places around the world. It it really is a a drive that he's placed within us to go and make disciples of all nations, preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout the world because the end is coming.

We know these things. But there's something further that this month in particular indicates as a responsibility that God has given to us. And I want to simply read a few verses. You can jot these down. You can look them up on your Bible program right now.

I'm not giving you an outline for this. It's really simple to do. But it has to do with our obligation in prayer regarding those that God has entrusted to us. Apostle Paul and the Apostle John both characterized those that come under their covering as being their children. And, of course, we don't anticipate that those that come into the faith or the walk of the saints will remain as children.

They should grow into trusted sons. That's not what Paul or John are indicating here when he calls these people their children. It's basically that they're being called their offspring in the faith, those that God has entrusted to them. And one of the things that I've learned as a parent and as a grandparent is that no matter how old your kids get or how old your grandchildren might grow from week to week seemingly, they're always going to be your children. You always have a sense of responsibility for them.

Isn't that true? Of course it is. So Paul writes to the Galatians in Galatians chapter four verse 19. My little children, I travail in birth again even now until Christ is formed in you. We've preached on this so many times and it's a good thing to look at all of the terminology that's utilized here.

But the onus of our looking at it today is found in the fact that Paul says, I have seen the Lord do a work in you, but I recognize that he wants you to keep growing into the image of Christ, the anointed son. And I pray for you. I don't just pray for you. I travail for you. So that this process of forming into that dynamic representative of the kingdom that God wants you to be is actually come to fruition.

John also said something to this degree in his second epistle verse four. I rejoice greatly that I found your children walking in truth in accordance with how we have received a commandment from the father. Children walking in truth. And then even in the third epistle of John, again, the fourth verse, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth or those measures that the Holy Spirit keep revealing. Those things that have been hidden or not understood or even misunderstood that the light is now shining on by the directive of the Holy Spirit in the divine timing, that now you're walking in that.

And Paul wrote to the Ephesians in that to those great warriors in that city of Ephesus who are on the front line of mysticism and superstition and idol making. He says in chapter one verse 16, I don't cease giving thanks for you. I make mention of you in my prayers. Why has the Lord put this on our heart today so strongly And particularly on this day when we're coming together as a church and we're inviting our Saints Network family to join with us. Why is this the the main theme of our coming together on this Wednesday?

It's because we as saints have so many responsibilities in so many places around the world, so many people who are standing firm in the place God has called them to stand. So many people in prayer groups, so many churches now that have received the word of life and the light has turned on in their spirit concerning this walk of faith, this calling to be saint. And it's it's not like when we go and have a tremendous series of meetings and we leave, that everything is just gonna go on exactly the way that that's supposed to. We have to begin to hear from the Holy Spirit in new ways how to pray for those people, how to lift them up, how to watch on behalf of their calling. We have a responsibility for them.

And Paul and John both called these people groups their children. And in many ways, you and I as saints have become fathers, mothers to them in the faith. And we need to pray for them. We need to pray for what? Not for every little thing.

Not for every little picayune ish prayer request. Of course, for any person, a prayer request isn't huge. But I've been around long enough to know that I've become troubled over so many things in my life that really amounted to nothing. You know, when I was up, my my girls were little, I could tell the difference in the way they cried as to whether they were really in trouble or not. Their their their expressions of crying out, just the intonation and the form they took.

So many ways told me whether this was an urgency, whether this was being afraid of something, whether they were really in pain, whether they had done something that they shouldn't have done, whether they got in trouble because mom had told them that they needed to go to their room because they'd done something they shouldn't have done. All of us who've had children in the house, we should recognize that there are differences. And so often when people of God pray, oh, there's always a reason for them to be praying. Sometimes their requests and I'm speaking as me. Let me talk about you.

Let me talk about me. Sometimes our my requests have been nonsensical. Sometimes it's been because I've had a lack of faith. Sometimes it's because I've given place to fear or a lack of confidence in God. Sometimes I've prayed in absolute alignment with the will of God and the the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I prayed in absolute partnership with something that had nothing to do with me except for my responsibility of partnering with God as a son. So I'm not saying that we pray for every little thing that people face. People need to overcome, and you can't do their homework for them no matter how much they may want you to. I remember when I was growing up, there were always prayer warriors in the church. You know?

My wife's mother was one of those. And the phone would ring constantly with people who were asking, oh, would you pray for me for this? Would you pray for me for this? And as a pastor, I would very often, like on Wednesday nights when I first became pastor, we would have people write a prayer request on a little piece of paper stock that was readily available in the pew. And they'd bring them up and I'd get a stack of them, fifty, sixty of them, and you'd read through every one of them.

And we were trying to be sincere, but some of them, when I would read them, I'd think, why did you write this on a piece of prayer request paper and cause this whole body to have to deal with this? This is something that every person has to deal with. This isn't worthy to me of bringing before the whole congregation. You know, sometimes we just have to walk for ourselves. But then there are times where you have a need that is beyond anything that your comprehension can deal with, and you need to stand together.

What type of prayer is Paul and John talking about here? Well, it's a specified type of prayer that Christ would be formed, that we would continue to walk in the revelatory partnership with the Holy Spirit. This no greater joy than to know that those that have come into the kingdom or come into this walk of faith in conjunction with our calling, that those people are walking in truth, that's what we pray for. We pray that what has been sown into them would actually begin to develop, and that they would fulfill or being on the pathway of development toward fulfilling the identity God foresaw in them from the foundation of the world. This is what we must pray for.

Now, yes, of course, if there's an emergency, a true emergency. Of course, I've been around long enough to know that for some people everything is an emergency. But if a true emergency comes, and I don't really want to see any of my congregation face one of those. But, of course, then we would stand alongside and pray. But the main focus of an apostolic ministry when we pray for our children in the faith is that they would walk in truth and that they would know the commandment of the father and receive it and abide in it and that they would see Christ formed within them.

This is what we must pray. Tonight, we're focusing on a lot of different fields of harvest that God has given us some measure of responsibility for. We're praying tonight for the wonderful people in Western Europe, particularly for a church in Lyon, France, and for that pastor, for that congregation, for the intercessors that are aligned there, as well as for all of the other people in outposts all throughout Western Europe who are taking a stand to abide with the Lord in the place where he has called them to serve. We want to pray for them. We want to pray for this dear brother that's up in Canada.

We want to pray for our brother who represents a prayer and fasting network in in in Equatorial Africa. We wanna pray for our brothers and sisters in India who we've not seen in quite a long time, but they are continuing faithful. We wanna pray for those in The Philippines that have been over the years growing. We've lost contact with many of them, but we know that whatever God has planted is still growing in some way shape or form. And of course, we're praying for our brother down in Mexico City.

We're praying for all of South America and for our extended growing by the day family throughout Brazil. We're praying for people throughout this nation of ours, The United States. We're praying for our country, but for those saints that God has planted in strategic locations. What are we praying for? That we would know the commandment of the father.

That we would receive the anointing as a trusted son, Christ like to fulfill that commandment. We're praying that we would continue to be guided by the spirit of truth who's guiding us into those things that God wants to reveal that have not been seen before. That's what truth literally is. And we don't cease in this. We pray proactively.

We pray in prosuche form, praying forward what God wants to do through them to the degree that he has revealed it to us. But I think no matter who the person is, we should be asking that Christ would be formed, that they would receive the commandment of the Lord in regard to that and the commandment of the Father, and that they would also then be growing in grace, moving in patience, walking in truth. This is our mandate for today on this Wednesday Night Live. And again, in just a couple of hours from the time of this recording, our congregation, many of them will be coming together to pray, to be on our face before the Lord, joining with so many saints in various locations around the world at the same time. But our objective is to lift up these fields of harvest that we have been guided into by the directive of our father.

We pray for these dear ones that our children in the faith, that they will fulfill the will of God in their life, in their calling, in their ministry, and in a place where they abide in him. This is our mandate, and I believe that it will be our functional operative command throughout this month. So we speak blessing over this season of prayer. We speak blessing over every one of you who are standing so faithfully as veterans in this walk of the high calling of God. We pray for those that God has given under our charge, and we ask as Paul and as John did, that they would move forward.

And of course, I would be remiss to not mention the most important intercessor of all, and that is our Lord Jesus who is situated at the right hand of the father through his triumph at the cross and in his resurrection. The Bible says that he ever lives to make intercession according to the will of God for us. So the very thing that I'm saying Paul and John prayed, the very thing that I am admonishing all of us to pray, is pattern and is continuing to be offered in perfect form by our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. What company to pray with.

Thank you for joining today. As I said, it is an abbreviated broadcast because it's a day of prayer. And, so often in the church we talk a whole lot more about prayer than we actually pray. Well, today we're gonna pray. So God bless you.

We invite you to tune in again on this coming Friday for our weekly devotional. And may God be with us all as we seek Him tonight on behalf of the harvest that he loves and that he's entrusted to us. God bless you and goodbye.