Pray for Supernatural Increase

Many of you joined us last month for The Invitation when we prayed for supernatural growth for ourselves and for our local communities. In a video, YWAM leader Lynn Green talked about prophetic messages YWAM has received about ten-fold growth and he explained how praying for growth fits with themes in the Bible.
We asked you to provide growth plans that God has given your community so we could include those in The Invitation for this month as we pray for growth from a global perspective. We heard from many of you and we reached out to several of the ministries associated with YWAM to ask about their growth goals. These specific growth plans and prayers have been included in The Invitation for March (our prayer day is on March 9).
As we prepare to pray for global goals, please watch this short video from YWAM’s founder Loren Cunningham about praying for global growth. This video was prepared specifically for The Invitation this month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzUyW_lTB1M&index=1
Next month is our final month for praying about growth and we will focus on prayer about persecution that often accompanies growth. If you have a specific prayer or story about persecution associated with growth, please share that with us by emailing us.
Also, from now on we are offering a new way to enter into The Invitation. You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/category/shows/prayer.

Prepare to Pray

YWAM Estonia drew this picture as they prayed

• Pray as Jesus prayed: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).
• Pray for all YWAMers to be aware of global goals that God has given YWAM and that each will understand their part.
• Pray for building of character. Pray for leaders of YWAM teams and ministries to effectively disciple staff and students to have a “Jesus” character so that non-believers see Jesus in them and come to faith. (From YWAM Perth.)
• Pray for YWAM staff and students to have faith to live the growth. Pray that we will repent of any unbelief related to provision and growth. Pray that we will trust God with all our heart. (From YWAM Sertão, Brazil.)

Pray for Global Growth

Map of YWAM’s ships

• End Bible Poverty Now: Pray that all the remaining 1,776 Bible-less languages would have at least a verbal recording of the New Testament by Christmas 2020 as a gift to Jesus (endbiblepovertynow.com).
• Frontier Mission: For several years, God has been speaking to our YWAM Frontier Missions leadership team to believe Him for supernatural increase in the harvest. With a focus upon making new disciples and starting Disciple-Making Movements, they have set a goal: “10X and Beyond!” Ten times the number of new believers and ten times the number of new movements among the unreached. Over the past few years, they have already seen a three-fold increase in disciple-making movements. Pray for God to lead them to the fulfillment of their goal to see a 10-times increase by 2020.
• Mercy Ministry: Pray for YWAM and its partners to have 18,000 mercy ministry staff in 200 countries by 2020 ministering to 50 million of the poorest and most vulnerable people.
• City Ministries: Pray for urban ministry teams in every one of the 40,000 cities worldwide where YWAM does not yet have a long-term presence.
• YWAM Ships: Pray for a fleet of 40 ships serving isolated islands and rivers throughout the world. The current fleet stands at 25 vessels. Pray also for trust to develop between YWAM ships and the governments of nations so that YWAM can engage the spheres of the nation where doors are open.
• Horn of Africa: Last month a group of YWAM pioneers met in Somaliland, a country that does not yet have long term YWAM presence, and they prayed for growth in their region. Pray for their goals for the next two years: four teams on the ground in Somaliland, a beachhead into Yemen, and six-fold growth in workers in another Horn of Africa country.
• YWAM DNA Infusion Asia reports that God has given the body of Christ in Cambodia a vision to see a church planted in every village by 2021. Please pray for this.
• Mission Builders currently equips between 500 and 1,000 volunteers to serve as many as 100 YWAM ministry centers each year. Pray for their long-term faith goal to raise up 15,000 volunteers each year to serve every YWAM ministry that has a need. They also want to thank everyone who prayed for them last year. They were able to pay off their mortgage by December 31, 2016.
• YWAM Associates USA: Pray for God to use the transition and changes in leadership to reveal His growth plans for YWAM Associates.
• University of Nations: Pray for effectiveness in serving where the need is greatest, supporting students in completing tracks and degrees and developing courses and tracks that empower people to engage with God’s purposes.
• Homes of Hope is currently building 390 homes for the poor each year in nine different locations. Pray for their growth goal to build 600 homes for the poor each year.

“For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20).

Take Action

Dedication of the new YWAM Battambang, Cambodia campus

• If you missed this video from last month, watch Lynn Green speaking about prayer for growth.
• Establish an area at your location where global and local growth goals can be visibly displayed as a reminder to pray and to focus.
• Read “Kingdom Reflections” by Kevin Sutter of Frontier Mission.
• Read Tom Bloomer’s warning about unbelief that can cause years of lost growth.
• Read Increase! article from YWAM South Asia. Also, read article regarding why we value reporting and tracking of our activities related to increase.

How We Prayed

In February of 2017 The Invitation focused on seeking God for supernatural growth. Here are a few of the reports we received:

• YWAM Perth, Australia was praying for their YWAM locations in East Asia when they sensed that God was telling them to communicate their specific prayers for YWAM globally. (See prayers above related to obedience and character.)
• YWAM Sertão, Brazil shared prayers noted above and reported that God gave them the word “people” regarding local growth
• YWAM Tallinn, Estonia prayed and listened and sent a photo of their time with the Lord.
• YWAM Colombia: A woman from YWAM Colombia shared several topics for future prayer. Topics included family, marriage and others.
• A Chilean asked for prayers for his country where there were outbreaks of fire, specifically that the fires would cease and that Chileans would turn to God in genuine and humble ways.
• A Syrian refugee requested prayer for his family seeking resettlement in Argentina.

Praying for unity at YWAM Blantyre, Malawi

• YWAM Blantyre, Malawi reported that God brought representatives from over 10 countries covering five of the six continents to their location in early January. Staff and students from YWAM Kona, YWAM Hernhutt and YWAM Blantyre prayed for unity in YWAM and within the church. After praying for each continent they went out in mixed teams to pray in the community. They also prayed that YWAM would be an effective vehicle in drawing the body of Christ together. They cited Psalm 133:1: “How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.”
• At the YWAM DNA Infusion Asia Conference in Battambang, Cambodia almost 500 people prayed for unity within the body of Christ. They also thanked the architects of the new campus for their story of dependence on God for every detail of their work.

Don’t Miss The Invitation

Future topics for The Invitation:

• April 13, 2017: Growth–Persecution
• May 11, 2017: Spiritual Formation
• June 8, 2017: Back to Jerusalem

Here’s how to participate:

• Sign up for prayer updates. On ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
• You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/category/shows/prayer.
• Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the post on the second Thursday on YWAM’s Facebook page.
• Follow YWAM on Twitter; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time or post a picture.
• Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
• If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us.