By Pastor Jason Smotherman
We’re so excited to announce that today we’re starting 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting for this wonderful community that we live in, Grants Pass. Josephine County in the Southern Oregon area, we believe is ripe for a move of God. Now, let me explain that just a little bit deeper, because I think we say these things in the church world where we talk about a move of God or revival, but really, God’s already moving towards people.
Really, what we describe when we describe a move of God is actually a move of man towards God, because he’s already moved towards us. We’re believing for soft hearts, believing for the revival that has been promised over this valley to continue. We don’t believe that the revival is coming. We believe that the revival is here in our church.
Our local body is part of a wonderful, wonderful local network of believers in Josephine County. And the Lord really began to ask our leadership at our church, to step up to the plate and really go after what the Bible describes as the gates of hell. If you can recall, Jesus talking to Peter saying, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, speaks to an advancing church, and it also speaks to a strategy that the enemy has run roughshod in our community for many years.
And we believe it’s time to take territory. And territory is not just land or churches or buildings or organizations. We believe that the greatest fight that happens over areas is for the battle for souls. People are the goal. It’s the only thing that we can take to heaven. We can’t take our dollars. We can’t take our church buildings, we can’t take our organizations.
But what we can take is people. And that is where the battle lies. The battle lies in making sure that the church is prepared to lead the charge in winning souls for the kingdom. So we’ve put together just a wonderful 21 day program.
We have available some discipleship materials on why we pray and why we fast and why we do it together, and then how you can actually participate. If you would like some more information on this, you can actually go to our website, parkwaycc.com/21prayer. There’s just several things there and resources that we wanted to empower, local believers to pray.
It’s going to culminate in the last three days of in person prayer and worship on the 19th, 20th and 21st. We’re going to have guest speakers from not just our own church but other churches. There will be a dedicated time of prayer from 5-6pm. Then at 6pm we will begin with a time of worship then a short message.
Please come! It’s going to be led by our prayer ministry team here. My wife and I are going to be here, and we’re going to be intentional about seeing what we’re believing for has been prayed over. And so would you join us? It’s going to be a wonderful time.
I get tasked with leading us in this first day of prayer, which is really a prayer for all of the local bodies that are in Josephine County. For far too long there’s been so much competition and back fighting. And through wonderful ministries like Church of the Valley that we get to be a part of, we’re seeing unity in our community like never before.
And Parkway has always been a champion for other churches in this community, and we always will be a champion for other churches in this community, because it’s going to take a full body, five fold ministry gifts. It’s going to take the churches that are discipleship heavy, the churches that are worship heavy, the churches that love to reach out to their community.
When God looks at Grant’s past, he doesn’t see many churches. He sees a church. And I pray that our church and our local body, that this area is seen to be part of His church. And that’s truly what we want. So I want to challenge you today. Would you guys take a few moments right now, throw some worship music on, and would you begin to pray for our local lead pastors or local staff pastors or local churches or local parishes, church ministries, by name.
Pray God’s protection and favor over them for 2025. Because we believe that 2025 is going to be an advancing year in so many aspects, and we believe that the enemy right now is scared because the church is rising up to take its rightful place. So join us for the next 21 days.
God bless you guys. You have a great day.
