A CHURCH THAT PRAYED
God transformed the Immanuel SDA church in Toronto, Canada from being a prayerless church to a vibrant and Spirit-filled House of Prayer. It all began with two sisters on their knees, Sandra and Ailleen, two of our 24/7 United Prayer regional coordinators. This is their testimony:
Approximately 10 years ago Immanuel church was a cold and dying church. Prayer was not the focus of the church at that time. In addition, people would not pray openly due to fear of criticism. The membership was small and mainly consisted of the older generation who were not receptive to change. There was a clear division in the church between the younger and older members. There was a lot of tension in the church instead of love.
2020 was a turning point for our church. Some church members regularly joined a global prayer call with the ministry 24/7 United Prayer. As a result, their lives were changed. They experienced the power of prayer and knew it would make a huge difference for our church. So a few of our church members (who became part of the 24/7 United Prayer Canada prayer call team) invited the 24/7 United Prayer ministry team to train our church on how to conduct a one-hour, Spirit-filled 24/7 United Prayer call. That training session transformed our church! Our church is now making God and prayer our first priority and lives are being changed. Prayers are being answered; miracles are taking place. Families who were infected with Covid were healed.
Today, we have an influx of young people taking part in the United Prayer call. Our youngest member is a young teen and serves as a prayer call tech facilitator once a week. We have older members joining the prayer call and praying. Those who were once skeptical about United Prayer have joined the prayer call and now believe in the power of praying together because they have experienced it themselves.
Currently, we are an active praying church and because of it, our church has grown. It comes, however, with growing pains and some resistance, of course, because the devil is still in our midst but with God on our side and a strong core leadership who puts prayer first in the church, we have seen God’s hands moving mightily especially since we incorporate prayer in every aspect of the church.
We have seen miracle after miracle in our church! Young and old bonding and spending time together. Old members coming back. Church growth. Other churches hear about our church and want to know what we did to become a thriving church again. We also heard that individuals in other countries have heard about our church as well. God is good!
We just finished 40 days of prayer in preparation for a 10-day evangelistic meeting. Every department of the church was involved each evening of the 40 days of prayer and prayed for their own departments, including the evangelistic meeting.
Individuals who had never prayed out loud during United Prayer are seeing their own answers to prayer and because of this, their view of prayer has changed! All the departments of our church are thriving because people see God is real and their faith is growing as prayers are answered! When we include God in everything, we will see the church prosper and this strengthens our faith as individuals and also as a whole.
A Sunday-keeping Christian couple from the country of Columbia attended our evangelistic meetings. They were drawn to our church because the name of their previous church was Immanuel and they figured that a church sharing the same name would be a good fit for them. After 3 months of attending our church, they asked to be baptized. This is just one of the many amazing stories! We are seeing new faces joining us Sabbath after Sabbath! We are seeing the community becoming more and more involved in the events and activities that our church offers.
Our prayer is that:
● The revival of our church will spark revivals in other churches around the world.
● People will be inspired to pray more, share testimonies of answered prayer, and teach others to pray.
● God will start a revival in communities, conferences, and divisions around the world.
● Pastors become praying pastors.
We believe that “We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us.”
Day 1: Heart Challenge
- Throughout the day ask God to remind you what He is speaking to you in today’s reading and going deeper discussions and to help you to apply them in your life.
- Read “The Three Kinds of Churches” for Day 2
- Prayerfully reflect on what kind of church you are from.
