BrianIngraham.com | ASPIRE

Tonight begins our churches 24 hour fast. We are fasting and praying specifically over the remaining obstacles to purchasing this building. Yesterday we received confirmation that the owners are attempting to have our church building turned into flats (cause of delay). It is in the government’s hands. I think it unlikely that this will be approved but it is worth a million pounds ($2m USD) to them if it does get approved.

Join us in prayer that this will be rejected quickly, so that we can purchase this building before winter sets in. I am praying that we will own this building by December 31st.

Pray that we will have spiritual confirmation this week about our path forward. If you pray and hear something (or wonder if you might have), please send me an email (brian (at) rehope.co.uk).

Thank you for interceding!

This week we had THE most powerful prayer time, maybe ever. People came out of the woodwork to pray with us and God was there. A HUGE spiritual victory and a HUGE answer to prayer.

The reason I hesitate to update is I don’t want to take any urgency out of praying for our church’s prayer times. We have had 1 great victory, and would love if you would continue to pray that what happened would continue.

It seems a common trick of Satan’s is to cut off believers’ communication with God. To accomplish this aim he may delude our souls with a sense of defeat, or cover us with what feels like a thick cloud of darkness, he may use depression or anything that oppresses our spirit, thus hindering prayer and our belief that it is even important at all.

Our Church is in too dark of a situation to even dream of moving forward without persistent and committed prayer. Thank you for interceding on our behalf and on behalf of Scotland.

I have become convinced our church is under the most subtle and dangerous of spiritual attacks and it is coming at the most sneaky of times. It comes at a time when we are growing, things seem to be thriving, people are excited, and the services are going well. On the one hand God is moving, and yet at the same time our adversary is at work attempting to “cut the power.”

For the last six weeks or so, our times of prayer have been slowly drying up, there is a noticed loss of urgency and enthusiasm. Our Tuesday night prayer time has gone from thriving to just a handful of people in the shortest of time. It had even entered my mind to just stop the Tuesday prayer altogether. Last Tuesday it was so bad, some of the people were silently searching, in prayer, for the reason of the dramatic decline in this area, and the dramatic rise in sleepiness, apathy, and faithless praying. We now are certain of Satan’s hand in this. He knows how to kill a good church, take the heart out of the praying.

I ‘randomly’ picked up James Frasier’s Biography this morning and was greatly encouraged by what I read. James was reflecting on Ephesians 6 about standing firm in Faith, Righteousness, Truth, in readiness, and in prayer, so that we can stand in the day of evil. Out of his circumstance he writes:

“I am not, however, taking the bleak, despondent view I took yesterday… the opposition will not be overcome by reasoning or by pleading, but by (chiefly) steady, persistent prayer.”

“I am now setting my face like a flint; If the work seems to fail, then pray; if services, etc., fall flat, then pray still more; if months slip by with little or no result, then pray still more and get others to help you”

“In every battle there are crucial spots. Get near and stay near to your Divine Chief until He turns and points them out. And at those points face and force the fight.”

I am convinced our ‘Divine Chief’ has pointed out this crucial battle for us and our church. It goes with out saying that we have chosen not to stop our Tuesday night prayer time. Join us in praying against this attack, that the enemies’ strategic attack would be fully defeated, and that again prayers would flow passionately and with faith. Thank you for standing with us. Prayer is powerful. God still hears prayers and God is still moving!

3 weeks ago, our church took a big risk and went to two services, one at 10:30 and the other at 6:30. We are doing the exact same service twice and are, in a sense, splitting the church into two groups.  It was a risk because we just didn’t have enough people to justify two separate services. Some of my fears were that one service would thrive and the other would be tiny and loose all momentum. Also, as with any change, you loose people.

Now here we are, three weeks into it, and I can say it was clearly the right move. We are growing twice as fast, this past Sunday was our largest attendance ever, the services are basically the same size (+/- 3 this week.) Both services have energy and momentum.

Sure, the service changes weren’t the only factor. We are in the midst of teaching through what is arguably the greatest short story in all of the bible, the book of Ruth. It is about hope, being heroic, redemption, relationships, manliness, femininity, courage, risk, etc.. I am loving this book. (To listen to the series you can go to THIS PAGE.)

Bottom line, it is an exciting time at the church. Continue to pray that God continues to allow us to remain in this building. Continue to pray that we ‘bear much fruit’ in this city. And pray for me also, that I may be ever better at communicating the message of Christ as clearly and effectively as I ought.

(Yes, I know the picture is a bit random, but here we go again having fun together at church.)

Mike Libolt and I have been putting together our church’s first ever Bible Study Methods Class. Here are some pictures of our first night.

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BTW- Pray for my son Owen, he has hand-foot-mouth disease. Not a big deal, but he is pretty miserable. To read about it you can click HERE.