If you want to establish a prayer network, or join one, here are hints from Thetus Tenney, whom my father, Harry Scism, asked to organize WNOP (World Network Of Prayer). She says WNOP exists ‘to more fully employ the power potential of agreeing, focused prayer for world revival and other needs within the Body of Christ.’ Setting up groundwork for this takes time and involves intricacy. The WNOP secretary has prayer guides written and printed to help people wanting to pray more who don’t know what to pray about or how to develop a prayer life. For more information, contact www.wnop.org
Each church and even departments in churches can appoint prayer network coordinators and include people in assigned prayers. These coordinators can share praise reports (telling about answered prayer) with other coordinators. You can give prayer requests to local coordinators, who can then decide which ones to send to larger groups of churches, whether they be called fellowship circles, sections, districts, synods, diocese, units. These coordinators then decide which ones to send to coordinators of larger prayer circles, and so on. Or, if you want a more rapid response system than that to deal with emergencies, you can authorize all local pastors or local elders (whatever in each place the local church leader is called) to authorize broader circulation. The point is to get bona fide requests into the hands of the people ASAP and for each nation organizes a prayer network by people who exemplify consistent prayer and set aside special days to fast and pray.
Also, each country can use prayer warriors to minister to churches in different meetings. These prayer warriors need not be men–some of our great prayer leaders are women. In India, I’ve seen God’s move through Kenter Doje, Mala Snow, Pradipa Patricia and many others. In Nepal, I’ve seen the same through Kamsya Karen, Jalu Jessica, Anjuli…this list goes on. These current examples encourage other people to similarly surrender to God.
Conferences and conventions can emphasize prayer. Special sessions or seminars can teach intercessory prayer, also using prayer guides and recordings to inform and inspire national constituency to intercessory prayer, binding us together in prayer and love, even though we be far apart physically, geographically and culturally.
WNOP sends prayer letters with answered prayers and miracles, as well as articles about prayer and lists of prayer needs, to people on its email list. National, state, county or district, and city/town/village prayer coordinators can be put in touch with this by other means if they don’t have email. Urgent needs might not be able to be sent to people further off the communication link, but at least long-term needs and the prayer letters offering suggests can be so sent. To do this, national church boards can choose as national prayer coordinator someone carrying a burden of prayer. Each convention, conference and mass meeting can present to the members an enrollment form so they can join the network. Each nation can select a way of communicating between churches so as to communicate prayer requests and praise reports through the system. The national prayer coordinator, or whoever is the first one on the email chain, can send these onward to www.wnop.org
If we passionately pursue involvement in this, share with prayer networks our plans, prayer activities and requests and tell them about prayer groups to receive requests, setting up this can take time effort and money. In one British church organization, each church subscribes by paying twenty pounds annually to a weekly prayer magazine containing requests, praise reports.
Pentecost Day began with people praying together ‘in one accord.’ As Thetus Tenney said, again, ‘In Acts 4, desperate prayer by desperate people released supernatural faith’ resulting in supernatural shaking, fullness, boldness, unity, submission, fruitfulness, and generosity. Let Pentecost happen again in our hearts, and in people’s lives through international revival we all want, God has promised, and we already have more and more.
Here are sample prayer request and praise report forms you might want to adopt or adapt in your various places:
Prayer Request Form
Name of Person Needing Prayer:
Illness/Request/Update (circle one):
Contact Telephone Number to Find Out Progress of Need For Which Request Was Given:
Name of Person Supplying This Information:
People Who Have Been Contacted:
Praise Report
Name of Person Raise Reports Is About:
Answered Prayer:
Then you would put the email address, contact telephone number, name of person supplying the information, and same list of people contacted as in the first example. So enjoy, and may God bless your prayer life and answer your prayer.
