These posts are an archive of thoughts & reflections on the subject of prayer. Mostly they are written by us, but occasionally, we find something that we'd like to share. We pray this adds to your understanding and growth in praying and being an intercessor.

Taking Ezekiel 22:30 as our basis, I Stand in The Gap! is a place of intercessory prayer for the sake of our nation, our community, our churches, and our neighbors who are hurting or in need, as we strive to "stand in the gap" and pray a hedge of protection, deliverance and help. It is a resource for prayer and how we as Christians are called to pray for others.

We are Steve and Kathy Pierce. We are prayer warriors. We live and serve currently in the North Georgia area but we pray for all people everywhere. We welcome you here and hope that you find something to bless you as we share prayer requests and the thoughts and words that God lays on our heart.

We will pull resources together to give you information with which to form your own prayers and to find out more about these area of concern.

Please also check out Reflections to read about the subject of prayer itself as we add resources and articles there.

One of the most remarkable illustrations in recent times of the power of prayer may be found in the experience of Mr. Moody. It explains his unparalleled career of world-wide soul winning. One marvels that more has not been said of it. Its stimulus to faith is great. I suppose the man most concerned did not speak of it much because of his fine modesty. The last year of his life he referred to it more frequently as though impelled to. The last time I heard Mr. Moody was in his own church in Chicago. It was, I think, in the fall of the last year of his life. One morning in the old church made famous by his early work, in a quiet conversational way, he told the story.

It was back in the early 1870s, when Chicago had been laid in ashes. "This building was not yet up far enough to do much in," he said, "so I thought I would slip across the water, and learn what I could from preachers there, so as to do better work here. I had gone over to London, and was running around after men there." Then he told of going one evening to hear Mr. Spurgeon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; and understanding that he was to speak a second time that evening to dedicate a chapel, Mr. Moody had slipped out of the building and had run along the street after Mr. Spurgeon's carriage a mile or so, so as to hear him the second time. Then he smiled, and said quietly, "I was running around after men like that."

He had not been speaking anywhere, he said, but listening to others. One day, Saturday, at noon, he had gone into the meeting in Exeter Hall on the Strand; felt impelled to speak a little when the meeting was thrown open, and did so. At the close, among others who greeted him, one man, a minister, asked him to come and preach for him the next day morning and night, and he said he would.

Mr. Moody said, "I went to the morning service and found a large church full of people. And when the time came I began to speak to them. But it seemed the hardest talking ever I did. There was no response in their faces. They seemed as though carved out of stone or ice. And I was having a hard time and wished I wasn't there; and wished I hadn't promised to speak again at night. But I had promised, so I went."

"At night it was the same thing: house full, people outwardly respectful, but no interest, no response. And I was having a hard time again. When about half-way through my talk there came a change. It seemed as though the windows of heaven had opened and a bit of breath blew down. The atmosphere of the building seemed to change. The people's faces changed. It impressed me so that when I finished speaking I gave the invitation for those who wanted to be Christians to rise. I thought there might be a few. And to my immense surprise, the people got up in groups, pew-fulls. I turned to the minister and said, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I don't know, I'm sure.'"

"Well", Mr. Moody said, "they misunderstood me. I'll explain what I meant." So he announced an after-meeting in the room below, explaining who were invited: only those who wanted to be Christians; and putting pretty clearly what he understood that to mean, and dismissed the service. They went to the lower room. And the people came crowding, jamming in below, filling all available space, seats, aisles, and standing room. Mr. Moody talked again a few minutes, and then asked those who would be Christians to rise. This time he knew he made his meaning clear. They got up in clumps, groups, by fifties! Mr. Moody said, "I turned and said to the minister, 'What does this mean?' He said, 'I'm sure I don't know.'"

Then the minister said to Mr. Moody, "What'll I do with all these people? I don't know what to do with them; this is something new." And he said, "Well, I'd announce a meeting for tomorrow night, and Tuesday night, and see what comes of it; I'm going across the channel to Dublin." And he went, but he had barely stepped off the boat when a cable-gram was handed him from the minister saying, "Come back at once. Church packed." So he went back and stayed ten days. And the result of that ten days, as I recall Mr. Moody’s words, was that four hundred were added to the church, and that every church nearby felt the impulse of those ten days.

Then Mr. Moody dropped his head, as though thinking back, and said: "I had no plans beyond this church. I supposed my life work was here. But the result with me was that I was given a roving commission and have been working under it ever since." Now what was the explanation of that marvelous Sunday and days following? It was not Mr. Moody's doing, though he was a leader whom God could and did mightily use. It was not the minister's doing; for he was as greatly surprised as the leader. There was some secret hidden beneath the surface of those ten days. With his usual keenness, Mr. Moody set himself to ferret it out.

By and by this incident came to him. A member of the church, a woman, had been taken sick some time before. Then she grew worse. Then the physician told her that she would not recover. That is, she would not die at once, so far as he could judge, but she would be shut in her home for years. And she lay there trying to think what that meant: to be shut in for years. And she thought of her life, and said, "How little I've done for God — practically nothing — and now what can I do shut in here on my back." And she said, "I can pray."

May I put this word in here as a parenthesis in the story — that God oftentimes allows us to be shut in — He does not shut us in — He does not need to — simply take His hand off partly — there is enough disobedience to His law of our bodies all the time to shut us aside — no trouble on that side of the problem — with pain to Himself, against His own first will for us, He allows us to be shut in, because only so can He get our attention from other things to what He wants done; get us to see things, and think things His way. I am compelled to think it is so.

She said, "I will pray." And she was led to pray for her church. Her sister, also a member of the church, lived with her, and was her link to the outside world. Sundays, after church service, the sick woman would ask, "Any special interest in church today?" "No," was the constant reply. Wednesday nights, after prayer meetings, "Any special interest in the service tonight? There must have been." "No; nothing new; same old deacons made the same old prayers."

But one Sunday noon the sister came in from service and asked, "Who do you think preached today?" "I don't know, who?" "Why, a stranger from America, a man called Moody, I think the name was." And the sick woman’s face turned a bit whiter, and her eye looked half scared, and her lip trembled a bit, and she quietly said: "I know what that means. There's something coming to the old church. Don't bring me any dinner. I must spend this afternoon in prayer." And so she did.

And that night in the service that startling change came. Then to Mr. Moody himself, as he sought her out in her sick room, she told how nearly two years before, there came into her hands a copy of a paper published in Chicago called the Watchman that contained a talk by Mr. Moody in one of the Chicago meetings, Farewell Hall meetings, I think. All she knew was that talk had made her heart burn, and there was the name M-o-o-d-y. And she was led to pray that God would send that man into their church in London. As simple a prayer as that.

And the months went by, and a year, and over; still she prayed. Nobody knew of it but herself and God. No change seemed to come. Still she prayed. And of course her prayer wrought its purpose. Every Spirit-suggested prayer does. And that is the touchstone of true prayer.

And the Spirit of God moved that man of God over to the seaboard, and across the water, and into London and into their church. Then a bit of special siege-prayer, a sort of last charge up the steep hill, and that night the victory came. Do you not believe — I believe without a doubt, that some day when the night is gone, and the morning light comes up, and we know as we are known, that we shall find that the largest single factor in that ten days work, and in the changing of tens of thousands of lives under Moody's leadership is that woman in her praying.

Not the only factor, mind you. Moody a man of rare leadership, and consecration, and hundreds of faithful ministers and others rallying to his support. But behind and beneath Moody and the others, and to be reckoned with as first this woman's praying. Yet I do not know her name. I know Mr. Moody's name. I could name scores of faithful men associated with him in his campaigns, but the name of this one in whom humanly is the secret of it all, I do not know. Ah! It is a secret service. We do not know who the great ones are. They tell me she is still living yet in the north end of London, and still praying.

Shall we pray! Shall we not pray?! If something else must slip out, something important, shall we not see to it that intercession has first place!

S.D. Gordon, taken from Quiet Talks on Prayer

Archive of Prayer Requests. NOTE: We purge older requests occasionally.

Pray for the prayer requests posted here on the site (and add your own). Add your own prayers to the comments to let those who have posted requests know that they are being prayed for.

Second, you can visit our Cafepress site and purchase some Prayer Warrior Gear to help us out and you get to wear or use some cool stuff that marks you as the intercessor you are. If you are in need of help with your Web presence, check out Cast Web Design, Steve's business.

Third,  we are available to speak and teach at your church, small group, special training day, retreat or seminar.

We will be glad to work with you to tailor our subjects and emphasis to your individual needs. If you are considering requesting either one or both of us for your group, please state your area of interest and as much as possible about your function and purposes. Additionally, please provide a contact name and phone number so we can get back with you to discuss arrangements further.

Finally, pray again

Be well!

Steve & Kathy

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Ezekiel 22:30 says "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." God is searching for people to "stand in the gap" and pray for protection, deliverance and help for others.
Isaiah 62:6-7 says "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." We believe this calls us to be part of the "night watch" and it speaks to more than just Jerusalem; it speaks to the Body of Christ everywhere. Prayer is the battleground on which we meet the enemy head-on. As S.D Gordon says,

"Prayer is man giving God a footing on the contested territory of this earth. The man in full touch of purpose with God, praying, insistently praying – that man is God's footing on the enemy's soil. The man wholly given over to God gives him a new sub-headquarters on the battlefield from which to work out. And the Holy Spirit within that man, on the new spot, will insist on the enemy's retreat in Jesus the Victor's name. That is prayer. Shall we not, every one of us, increase God's footing down upon His prodigal earth?"

Join us as we strive to "Stand in the Gap", as our Lord calls us to do, with our prayer ministry, for our nation, our community, our churches, and our neighbors who are hurting or in need. In the North Georgia mountains, there are also gaps – places of connection and transition from one valley to the next. Such gaps have been used from ancient times as pathways, more easily traveled than going over the higher peaks. We seek to be a pathway, a connection, helping people, who are in need of God's love and grace, find Him more easily, again or for the first time. There are often gaps in our hearts, too. Empty places where a dysfunctional family didn't provide the comfort and nurture we needed, or painful experiences or loss of a loved one has left a hole where once there was light and hope and joy.

Perhaps a move has brought you far from the love and support of family and friends that held you up in the past, and now there is the gap of loneliness. Let us be your family for this season of your life, whether that season is a week, a month or a year or more (note: this is NOT an invitation to move in with us but an invitation to allow us to help you bear your burdens and take them to the foot of the cross of Jesus).

We offer a place apart, a safe place and yet an arena for the saints of the Lord to wrest His people from the snares of the Adversary a battlefield and still a refuge from the chaos of everyday life, and a sanctuary for renewal and restoration. Welcome – the Light is always on!

Steve & Kathy Pierce

Scripture references used throughout this blog are from various translations:

AMP – Amplified® Bible
  Copyright © 1987. All rights reserved. For Permission To Quote information visit http://www.lockman.org/

  The "Amplified" trademark is registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by The Lockman Foundation.

ASV – American Standard Version (Public Domain)

CEV – Contemporary English Version®
  Copyright © 1995 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

ESV – English Standard Version
  Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.  

KJV – King James Version (Public Domain)

MSG – The Message
  Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002.
  Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

NJB – New Jerusalem Bible
  Biblical text © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd. and Doubleday Notes and Introductions © 1990 by Darton, Longman & Todd
  Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by arrangement
  with Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

NAB – New American Standard Bible
  Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

NIV – New International Version®
  Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by
  permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

  The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica.

NLT – New Living Translation
  Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004.
  Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

YLT – Young's Literal Translation (Public Domain)

AllAboutPrayer.org

A rather inclusive resource site on prayer.

D.L. Moody's Intercessor

from S.D. Gordon's Quiet Talks on Prayer

InJesus.com Prayer Groups

InJesus.com provides a Web service that makes communication easy for Christian ministries.

Pray!^®

Pray!, an inspirational yet highly practical website from NavPress^®, is created just for people who want to pray more powerfully and effectively.

PrayerForce

The PrayerForce is a ministry of laity and clergy throughout the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Prayer Quotes

Some interesting quotes on prayer from a number of people in different walks of life.

Rees Howells, Intercession, Revival and the Bible College

Once the Holy Spirit took possession of him in 1906, Rees Howells, a Welsh miner, was led deeply into a ministry of intercession for many situations including healing, conversions and to challenge death at home and abroad on the mission field. The "biography", Rees Howells, Intercessor by Norman Grubb provides a look into this man called out by God.

Special Prayers of the Bible

Prayers that are found in the Word.

Tips on Fasting

Tips and Scripture references on Fasting.

Upper Room^® Living Prayer Center

The Upper Room Living Prayer Center is a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week intercessory prayer ministry staffed by Christian volunteers. The Upper Room Living Prayer Center was started in April 1977.

What Should We Pray For?

One way to answer this is to look at what the early church prayed for. By John Piper.

Window International Network

A prayer ministry devoted to the 10/40 Window.