Nov 21 – The focus of this week’s prayer letter is based on a Blog article I wrote several years ago entitled, ‘Building Faith.’ It is also linked into yesterday’s sermon and spirituality on the Throne of Grace.

Grace and faith are two biblical concepts that sit beautifully together. Grace is all about Your rich, underserved favour and love; faith our human response inspired by the Spirit and word which takes hold of Your grace and makes it live in us.

Faith is not misplaced human confidence – Many people talk about faith as if it is some mysterious, unreal thing – not based in reality. They ask, ‘how can you have faith in a God who is not real?’

Others speak of faith as a humanly inspired thing which is at the heart of religious practice. In this sense, faith stands for ‘religious belief.’ It is in this context that people will say, ‘you have your faith, and I have my faith.’ It is like a personal belief which you chose to apply as you think is right. These are erroneous views which are human constructs and only lead to a worldly, soulish and even carnal understanding of faith.

Father, as we face the temptation to compromise with the world around us – grant us the resilience, confidence and understanding needed to walk daily drawing upon Your grace in Christ, led by the Spirit, walking by faith whole-heartedly following Christ.

Following the world’s way leads to spiritual emptiness and kills biblical faith. Following Christ, reading Your word and seeking to obey it leads to spiritual power and vitality, and builds our faith as we receive Your grace.

May all in our church be able to understand how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ, live in the security Your love and grace, and seek to daily walk by faith living in Your Spirit’s fullness. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Nov 22 – A false faith and a worldly-based truth are often connected – these are at the root of many anti-Christ movements, philosophies and religions; both are also at the heart of Religious Pluralism – the anti-Christ belief that there are many truths out there, and many ways to connect with God.

Relativism states that there are no absolute truths, instead morality and truth are determined by their context whether that be the cultural origin, historical setting or societal development. This denies both Jesus as God’s truth, and the Bible as God’s revealed truth.

Lord, expose the falseness and spiritual emptiness of these arguments, and dig out their roots from our nation so Religious Pluralism and Relativism, both spiritually destructive in nature, and recognised to be evil strongholds, are broken and overthrown in the UK.

Father, as Christians, we believe that faith and truth meet perfectly in Christ, and that the Bible reveals Your absolute truth. Continue to develop our church as a congregation of people who now how to draw upon Your grace, are faith-filled, maturing in faith, and bold and fruitful in their witness to the Crucified, Risen, Ascended, Exalted and Glorified Christ. Amen

Nov 23 – Saving Faith. As Christians, we know the important role the Holy Spirit plays in our regeneration and salvation – we are born again of the Spirit, by grace into a living, saving faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, our understanding flows out of our relationship with Christ, He is our Saviour and Redeemer. Our faith is not humanly inspired, but birthed in us by other’s testimonies, and by reading or hearing God’s word read or preached. In this sense a person can walk into a church service with absolutely no faith, and leave with a saving, life-changing faith – it can develop that quickly.

Father, thank You that the work of Your Spirit, by grace, leads to a saving faith. Saving faith is an instrument, always only in Christ, something real and tangible, by which we receive something in return from You – our salvation.

In Christ there is a restoration of that which Adam and Eve lost because of their sin and disobedience, to be accounted righteous in Your eyes. This righteousness means a right standing with You as Your daughters and sons, and the potential of coming to a right standing within about our own selves, and with others around us.

Enable our church to also develop into a wonderful House of Righteousness wherein sinners are turned into saints, the unrighteous into the righteous in Christ, where the unholy are redeemed in Christ and become holy unto the Lord, and we all learn how to walk daily in righteousness and Your truth.

We ask that we will be a church full to overflowing with people of worship, power and truth – people who are genuine, demonstrating a faith which seeks to honour Christ 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, every year until our death or Christ comes – whichever comes first; a people who are being sanctified, seeking first Your Kingdom and its righteousness in every sphere of their lives. In Jesus’ name and for His glory. Amen

Nov 24 – Father, thank You that saving faith is belief into the person and work of Christ; the foundation of our saving faith is a belief that the Gospel is true. It is placing our trust and lives into the hands of Christ – grace and faith working hand in hand.

Your grace is poured out in Christ as a gift to us, we respond in faith trusting in Christ, His person and work as revealed to us in the Bible. Ephesians 2:8, NKJV, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, that that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’

Your word is amazing. This verse is at the heart of Paul’s teaching about salvation. We pray that Your salvation will flow out from our church into Brookdale, the streets of Hadley and Leegomery, the streets of Telford & Wrekin | Shropshire, and online as we minister online.

We ask that many men, women, young adults, young people and children will be saved as a result of the ministries and congregation which is Telford Elim as they encounter Your Spirit and Christ’s grace responding with repentance and a saving faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Nov 25 – Living Faith. Father, a living, active, keeping, growing faith is needed in order to be sanctified, set apart as holy and fit for Your service in Christ. We pray for the grace and power to overcome the world and its lure, and to overcome sin, self and Satan.

Enable us to build a godly resilience within that means that each and every day we set out trusting in Christ, drawing upon His grace, walking in faith led by Your Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:7 states, ‘For we live by faith, not by sight.’

Faith is the very real connecting agent between us and You. We are transformed by living faith from self-dependent to Christ-dependent.

We pray that Pastors Alisha and Samuel will be especially anointed to lead large numbers of young people and young adults into this life of Christ-dependency – a freedom in Christ through our church’s ministries, in person and online, and its Kingdom minded people. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Nov 26 – How do we build our faith? Father, enable us to focus on helping people practice the Christian Disciplines which build faith, especially to regularly to read Your word with the Holy Spirit’s anointing. As we step into our calling each day asking to be filled with Your Spirit and Heaven’s anointing, learning how to draw upon Your grace in every setting and situation of life – our faith will build.

We ask for this morning’s Worship and Encounter session at church, that as Telford Elim Worship minister in song, music and in word, that You will richly anoint, bless and minister into the lives of those who come along. May it be a morning of deepening connection with You, and Your throne of grace.

As we prove You in our lives, in our ministries, in our service – our faith will build and enlarge. As we worship and serve together seeing You at work in each other’s lives – faith builds. As we engage with You in Your mission in Christ to the world – faith builds. As we learn to lay more of our lives on the altar sacrificing more and more for Christ – faith builds.

Faith is our victory overcoming the world (1 John 5:4). May we be a church that is filled with victorious, faith-filled disciples. In Jesus’ name and for His glory. Amen

Nov 27 – Father, a Christian is one who sows the seed of Your word, waters when necessary, weeds when necessary, and seeks to live a Spirit-filled and faith-filled life – it is this life that emboldens and enables him or her to do so.

Forgive me for the times when I have not allowed Your light to shine through me, have not listened for Your Spirit’s guidance, nor relied on His strength and grace. Forgive me also for the times I have sought to build my own house and city apart from You.

Lord, I rededicate myself to Your service afresh, and to become a whole-hearted, grace and faith-filled follower of Christ in my home, workplace, school, college or uni, marketplace, leisure-place and in the different relationships in all areas of my life.

We pray again for the salvation of Telford & Wrekin | Shropshire, the West Midlands, and the UK: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Jesus’ name