Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
Pastors, church leaders and other concerned people plan to assemble near the gazebo at Lake Wailes Lake at 7 a.m. Tuesday, June 9 to pray for the city, state and nation.
Lake Wales City Commissioner Curtis Gibson presented the idea to Pastor Walter Nelson of IMPACT Church, who immediately started spreading the word.
Rather than choose specific people to offer prayers, Nelson sent out an email, providing a corporate prayer for all assembled to use. He suggested bringing the copy in print or on a smart device so those gathered could follow along or pray out loud.
The prayer, filled with many Bible verses from both the Old and New Testament but with a decided Christian bent, takes about 15 minutes to recite.
(Editor's note: We are printing the entire prayer here so those who would like to participate but can't make it to the lake have the opportunity to join in.)
Oh, Lord, we are Your people, called by Your name.
We humble ourselves – we pray – we seek Your face and we turn from our wicked ways.
By Your Word, oh Lord, hear us from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land. (2 Chron. 7:14)
We repent. Father, please forgive us!
We repent of our pride because pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall; (Prov 16:18) – we have been a prideful people and a prideful nation.
We repent of unforgiveness. Lord, you have made it clear. If we forgive men when they sin against us, our heavenly Father will also forgive us. But if we do not forgive men their sins, our Father will not forgive our sins. (Matt 6:14-15)
We repent of our arrogance which causes us to judge others even though there is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy - who am I to judge another? (James 4:12)
We repent of our worry and doubt which leads to insecurity – we have failed to seek first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness.
We repent of our fear. Like Elisha’s servant, we cannot see the horses and chariots of fire that surrounds the man of God. (2 Kings 6:15-17)
Oh Father, You have not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
We repent of our lust. Lust that eventually brought Samson down to blindness, humiliation, slavery, and eventually death. (Judges 13-16)
We repent of our envy and our jealousy. Like King Ahab, these things led to the murder of his neighbor at the hand of Queen Jezebel. (1 Kings 21)
We repent of our gossip. Your Word instructs us not to spread false reports and not to help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. (Exodus 23:1) May we not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)
We repent of our greediness which, like Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit in order to appear more generous to the church, causes us to try to build ourselves up in the opinion of others. (Acts 5:1-11)
We repent of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, because those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21)
"Search [us], O God, and know [our] heart[s]; try [us] and know [our] thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in [us], and lead [us] in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:23)
"Purge [us] with hyssop, and [we] shall be clean; wash [us], and [we] shall be whiter than snow," (Ps. 51:7)
Create me in [us] a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within [us]," (Ps. 51:10)
"Allow [us] to retain no iniquity in [our] heart[s], so that You will hear [us]," (Ps 66:18)
We] confess all [our] past sins. You, Lord, are faithful and just to forgive [us], and to cleanse [us] from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9)
This day, [we] will walk in the light, as You are in the light, and have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse [us] from all sin. (1 Jn. 1:7)
Now [we] come to You, for You will in no wise cast [us] out. (Jn 6:37)
Since [our] heart[s] [do] not condemn [us], therefore [we] have confidence toward God. and whatsoever [we] ask, [we] receive of You, because [we] keep Your commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in Your sight. (Jn 3:21-22)
As we are praying, we forgive every person against whom we have ought, and if You will bring to our remembrance any brother or sister who has ought against us, we will go and be reconciled to that person. (Mk 11:25, Matt 5:24)
We lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting and offer supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks.
Now, for a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, we pray, and Father, start this work in us.
We echo the Prayer of Jabez over ourselves and our city:
“Oh Lord, that You would bless [us] indeed, and enlarge [our] territory,
That Your hand would be with [us], and that You would keep [us] from evil,
That [we] may not cause pain! (1 Chron 4:10)
Sweep across the broken strings of our lives, and stir the slumbering cords again.
Pour out the Spirit of Supplication upon every believer and cause us to stir up ourselves to take hold of You. (Zech 12:10; Isa 64:7)
Cause the ministers of the Lord to weep between the porch and the altar and cry: "Spare Your people, O Lord, and give not Your heritage to reproach," (Joel 2:17)
Make our own head waters, and our eyes a fountain of tears that we, too, may weep night and day for our people, so that we may, like our Lord "Offer up prayers and supplications with STRONG CRYING AND TEARS unto Him that is able to save..." (Heb 5:7)
Grant to the leaders of this nation and all nations a desire for peace and a mind that can be guided by truth.
Give to every elected and appointed official of the United States of America a desire to execute justice, a repugnance for evil and an aversion to deceit.
Make our hearts to cry out for truth and equity, in order that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. (1 Tim 2:2)
Lift every brother and sister in Christ, lift each believer in the United States of America beyond denominational barriers, racial divides, doctrinal differences and petty grievances, in order that we may become, as our Lord prayed, "One."
Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?
In wrath, remember mercy; let righteousness and peace kiss each other,mercy and truth meet together, and make our land to yield her increase again. (Ps. 85)
Rend the heavens and come down and visit Your people; make the mountains to flow down at Your presence - the prairies, the valleys and the little hills to skip like rams. (Isa 64; Ps 114)
Cause the trees to clap their hands and the morning stars to sing together at what You're going to do for Your Church in America.
Resurrect the dry bones of Your people by the quickening of the Holy Ghost.
May we sow for ourselves righteousness and may we reap in mercy; Break up our fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, until You come and rain righteousness upon us. (Hos 10:12)
O Lord, take out our hearts of stone and put within us hearts of flesh; make us to rend our hearts and not our garments.
God, transfigure our faces with the radiance of Your glory.
Grant us an unprecedented outpouring of Your Holy Ghost, a season of refreshing by Your grace.
We ask for Revival - that rain from heaven. Come, not as the dew of heaven, but as rain upon the mown grass and as showers that cover the earth.
Give us songs in the night, springs in the desert, floods upon our dry ground and make wells to burst forth in our wilderness.
Roar from the mountain of Your Holiness, the habitation of eternity, in irresistible power. Stretch forth Your mighty hand to shelve all of the old dried up sermons, ceremonies, evangelical gimmickry, judicial and legislative excuses for reform. Make the Son of Righteousness to rise upon our land with healing in His wings, lifting us up into the light of Your countenance, bringing us into Your banqueting house, anointing us with the oil of gladness and making us brokers in the divine exchange of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. (Isaiah 61)
Awaken us at the root, that there might be a saving of sinners as a fruit.
Effect a divine transfer of multitudes now in the valley of decision, from shades of night to planes of light.
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of our years!
Grant us a Spiritual Awakening of such proportion, that it will make all prior Revivals of Church history look like dress rehearsals by comparison.
Receive our prayers!
Hear our supplications!
Defer not to respond to our petitions!
Provide for us a demonstration of the supernatural that will lift America from the plane of the ordinary to the realm of the extraordinary!
Permeate our courts of time again with the atmosphere of eternity!
Through our prayers, Lord, make our weaknesses and impossibilities to become a platform for the display of Your glory and power; that Your purposes might be fulfilled, Satan routed, and Revival secured for this generation.
Father, grant that millions of Americans will unite themselves together and pray until:
From the mountains to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America
Our home, sweet home!
And now, Lord, clothe each believer with the authority of Calvary; canopy each of us with the mantle of the Holy Spirit; quicken us with the almightiness of the Name of Jesus and endue us with the power from on High!
And what we pray for ourselves, we ask for each believer in the nation:
Revive us again...
Fill each heart with Your love...
may each soul be rekindled...
With FIRE from above.
Grant to us, Lord, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know the hope of Your calling, and what is the exceeding greatness of Your power to us who believe. O make our eyes to behold another day of Your power. (Eph 1:17-19)
You who are rich in mercy, quicken us and raise us up together to sit in heavenly places in Christ, that in the ages to come You may show the exceeding riches of Your grace toward us. (Eph 2:5-7)
Father, we serve notice on You, that we will persistently approach unto You in humility and sincerity until this blessing is ours.
We will not be denied until You show Yourself strong on our behalf; until we, with joy, draw water out of the wells of salvation, until we taste and see that You, Lord, are good; that Your love is better than wine and sweeter than honey out of the honeycomb.
Here we take our stand!
We can do no other!
We present our nation, the United States of America, as a candidate for a mighty Spiritual Awakening. We will not let You go until we secure this Balm of Gilead; until we drink from the cup which will wash us, cleanse our society, remedy our evils and cure our ills.
O come, Lord! Come in this time of tremendous need for our nation.
We know that the answer that we seek does not come from the White House or any political party. We know that the answers we need come from only You. We repent for looking to politics for solutions rather than looking to You and Your Word.
We pray for righteousness in our land. We pray that wickedness will be driven back by righteousness and that the church, the Bride of Christ, will rise up in the power of the Holy Ghost!
Direct the United States of America according to Your will.
Direct our nation to place in the offices of leadership individuals who are righteous and who fear You:
The Presidency,
the Senate,
the House of Representatives,
and all federal, state, and local civic leaders.
We pray for judges who will render decisions according to righteousness and law.
O Father, the United States of America has strayed from its biblical foundation. Sin is rampant in our land.
We are given over to the works of the flesh – we repent of these things.
Oh, Lord, we pray for our city and our area – we pray for Lake Wales, Florida, and the surrounding region.
As we repent of our sins, let the bondage of past sins be broken – sins of generations past be demolished.
As we turn to You and seek Your face, we will not be disappointed.
As we intercede for our families and our children, we will experience the sufficiency of Your grace in our homes.
As we turn to You, we will know the glorious riches of Your presence.
Lord, bless and direct our city leaders. May they be directed by Your wisdom.
Lord, cover our first responders. May they know the protection of Your mighty hand and be directed in all godliness, righteousness and justice.
Lord, direct the education for our children – the Lake Wales Charter Schools and Polk County School Board. May our children be served by what is best for Lake Wales’ students.
May our children desire to learn and grow in knowledge, and not be hindered by ignorance and underachievement.
May the level of education increase and be evident in test scores, abilities and the conduct of our sons and daughters.
Lord, release bondages that would keep Lake Wales isolated from commerce.
We ask that You bring to our city viable businesses that will profit our people through labor and employment.
We ask that You fill our Commerce Park with businesses that are profitable - businesses that will provide manufacturing and generate revenue.
We pray for a rejection of ignorance and simplicity and we pray for increase in understanding and responsibility.
We pray, oh Lord, that our lives would reflect the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5)
Please hear our prayer as we join together: (Matt 6:9-13)
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever…
We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, AMEN
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