While at Seedbed.com’s New Room Leaders gathering in NC in February, David Goodnight heard a message from the Lord that really struck him and this is the basis of a prayer. he offered a few weeks later in an online event.
David Goodnight’s words :
“Before the beginning of the creation of man and since, our God has been regularly, repeatedly, routinely rejected. He was rejected by 1/3 of the angels and by Satan, who fell from heaven. He was rejected within a generation of creating man by tragedy in the first family. He was rejected at the time of Noah by virtually all of mankind. He was rejected by the people of Israel, whom He delivered from Egypt, and then within a short time of many miracles, they had created a golden calf. He was rejected when they wanted a king and he said you don’t need a king, I will be your king. He was rejected even by his own disciples. He was rejected at the time of his crucifixion.
And the speaker we heard in NC was saying why is it that God pours out his spirit and awakening at certain times and in certain places and why not others? The speaker said, I think I found the answer and that is, He wants to be wanted. He wants to be welcomed and when people say we want you, we welcome you, we lift you up He answers. He stands at the door and knocks for anyone who wants to welcome him in, so my prayer this morning is that we could offer a prayer from all these different places Michigan, Washington state, all the places that you on this group have posted. Ireland, the south, the north, the east and the west. We could offer a prayer to our Lord to say, “Lord, we want you. We welcome you.”
The message was sort of fourfold welcoming. We welcome you, first of all into our hearts. No one can stop us from doing that. No culture can stop us from doing that. We welcome you into our families. We welcome you into our churches.
I told my pastor in our church in Washington, “Shelley and I are going to come early for the services and walk through the sanctuary, in the children’s rooms and the grounds and just welcome the Lord to our property, to our church before the service.”
And we can welcome Him fourthly, into our culture. So let’s raise our hearts before the Lord this morning. Join me in prayer and let us all just exult and welcome the Lord.
“Father God,
We come together as an army of your people, united for a great awakening, sowing for a great awakening. And we just want to say to You that we love You. We want You in our hearts, Lord. We need You in our hearts. I needed You as a little boy in my heart. I needed you at the time that I had that terrible accident. We need You; we want You. We welcome You into our hearts. And Father, we welcome you into our families. Into the lives of our children, our grandchildren, those who’ve married our children. We welcome You into our families. We welcome You into our churches. We’re part of so many different congregations, from different backgrounds but Lord, we want You, we need You. We welcome you into our churches. We have nothing without You. And Lord we welcome You into our culture. A culture, that today has rejected you but Lord, we want You. We declare together that you are welcome. You are needed. You are loved, in our hearts, in our families, in our churches, and in our culture. So, Lord receive our love, receive our prayers of welcome
this morning and Lord, pour out Your spirit for a great awakening in our families, in our own hearts, in our cultures, in our churches, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.”. ( David Goodnight, Saturday, March 23,2024)