I was in a church years ago here in Denver which was slowly dying out.  The
pastor was a great man of God but they lost the building they were renting
for ten years because the owners wanted to start another business in the
facility and that seemed to break the pastor's spirit.  Just about the time
my family and I began going to church there, the pastor decided to fold the
church.  Another man stepped forward and after some discussion and a couple
of weeks of prayer, the pastor turned the church over to this man.  It went
well for a few weeks but then people began to leave.  This was this man's
first church.  He had moved here from Texas because, he said, the Lord told
him to move here and He told him, he said, to take Denver for Christ.  Our
group got down to about 15 to 20 people.  Yet this man still believed he was
going to get a huge building, pastor thousands of people, and that many
pastors in Denver would come to him and work under his ministry.  In short,
though he never said it, he believed he was called to be the apostle of
Denver.  One morning at church, the Lord spoke to me and told me He had
something to say to this small body of believers.  The pastor and I talked
before the service and he was happy because, he said, he was unable to come
up with a single thing to preach or teach that morning so he knew this was
of the Lord.  The Lord gave me a vision, of sorts, of a small store front
church with perhaps 50 people.  They became a house of prayer and spent
hours and hours every day praying.  I saw people coming to be healed as they
heard about the people who prayed.  Eventually other pastors came and joined
us in prayer because they wanted their ministries blessed.  Youth pastors
and missions came for the same reason.  Suddenly, I realize how a small
group, or church, could literally take Denver for Christ.  I spoke for 45
minutes as the Holy Spirit told me what to say.  When I finished, the pastor
took the microphone and said he disagreed with much of what I said.  He
still believed he would have a big building of thousands.  That church no
longer exists today.  Because of what I said?  No.  Because there was also
sin in the church which the pastor would not deal with and it ripped the
church apart.  If you are going to believe anything in your Christian life,
believe in prayer because it is the only thing between you and God that
works.

Phil.



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