Key Points of Focus

14 Days of Prayer & Fasting

Humility before the Lord

Fasting naturally evokes humility in a person’s heart. David said, “I humbled my soul with fasting” (Psalm 35:13). Multiple times in scripture, the truth that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble is repeated (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), calling us to clothe ourselves with humility. Humility is one of the conditions God looks for in His people that leads to spiritual revival and awakening (2 Chronicles 7:14; Joel 2:13ff). During this fast, we are intentionally sending the Lord a relational message that we are humbling ourselves before Him, and that we desire our worship and our lives to be clothed with humility.

Prayer for boldness

In Acts 4, the Early Church pray in response to the threat of persecution and opposition to the Message of Christ. They prayed, “And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). The Holy Spirit responded to this prayer by giving those gathered in prayer a fresh outpouring and shaking the place where they were.

The Holy Spirit extravagantly respondes to a church that is passionate about the spread of the Word and committed to boldly declaring Christ to the nations. During this fast, we will position ourselves before the Lord in devotion to His cause, and ask Him for boldness to spread the Word of Christ.

Ekballo

Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harveset to send out workers to His harvest.” Few, in its original Greek word, also means weak. During this fast, we are praying that God will strengthen us as His workers in His harvest. The Greek word for “send out” is “ekballo”, which is the same word used whenever Jesus powerfully drove out or cast out a demon. God wants to send us out with power to be His workers in His harvest.

Here we are, Lord, send us! Ekballo us!

Our Church’s Needs

We are a church overflowing with God’s heart for the glory of Christ and for His people. Some of our key prayer points for our church include:

  • Divine healing and freedom of spirit, soul, and body for members of Alabaster Church, and all who Alabaster Church ministers to and will reach with the Gospel of Christ.

  • The success of the Primary School Project — that many families would be impacted, helped, reached, and discipled.

  • That we be a people who pursue holiness and consecration that God can use for His glory.

  • That we see a harvest of souls this year — a record number of decisions for Christ, baptisms in water, and baptisms in the Holy Spirit.

  • That we see Alabaster Connect Groups multiply across our community as an effective disciple-making strategy.

  • For the successful planting and launch of Alabaster Church Hills — that a committed group of 40+ adults from the areas of Monbulk, Emerald and into Gembrook rise up and build the Hills Location.

  • For our Alabaster Kids and Youth to grow in quantity and quality — young people making disciples who make disciples.

  • For the manifest PRESENCE and POWER of the Holy Spirit to be with us as we co-labour with Jesus in fulfilling His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 22:45-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:8).

Let us rise up and build

Nehemiah 2:18