Passing Prayer Forward

A few months ago, God placed on my heart a burden for revival, in the church where I pastor and in my city. As I was praying, God gave me a very unusual idea.I began to pray for Christians who were not members of my church to come to our campus and pray for us and our revival services. I asked that these people not attend the services, but be in a prayer room seeking God, asking Him to revive our church and send spiritual awakening to Benton, Arkansas.As I was praying for this, God allowed me to share this request with a couple of people in our area. They began to pray with me.After several weeks, one of these partners came to me and said, “There are two churches willing to come and pray for your church, and our city!” I was in awe of how God had answered this prayer.The next day, God humbled me and said, “I have provided for you and your church; now do the same for other churches.” After saying this, He showed me that two churches in our city were having revival services simultaneously.God said, “Go to both churches!” I was hesitant to say yes. We are a very small church, and I was not sure how our members would respond.The next Sunday, I told our people what God had asked me to pray for, how He answered that prayer, and what He was asking us to do. Praise be to God, our members met the challenge.We canceled our services on Sunday and Wednesday evenings to go and pray for revival at these churches. We also had people volunteer to pray on Monday and Tuesday evenings on each church’s campus. I am humbled by what God has done!Members from the churches we prayed for were so honored by what we did, they too have committed to pray at our church for our revival. God is overflowing this opportunity to pray together for each other and our city!Whether or not this falls into the category of “extraordinary” prayer, God is honoring our prayers and our obedience. We pray that more people and churches will humble themselves and seek out new and different ways to pray for revival and spiritual awakening.Jimmy Hefner, PastorSalem Baptist Church3069 Salem RoadBenton, AR 72019www.salem-baptist.com