LEGACYouth: Acquire the Fire 2014 Prayer Points

After months of administrative and spiritual preparation, after hundreds of hours praying, planning and laying groundwork, Acquire the Fire has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Granted, whenever heaven and earth collide in this life, the experience always feels too short. But as the case with each Acquire the Fire event, its conclusion never fails to leave behind some notable takeaways.

But before I continue, what is Acquire the Fire exactly?

Well, for starters, it’s a life-transforming event centered on giving volume and clarity to God’s voice in the lives of young people. It’s an event marked by fearless evangelism and anointed worship. And it’s a time for youth to engage the power and presence of God amidst the silence of secular noise. In essence, Acquire the Fire is a dynamic, encounter-based experience, fixed on inspiring young hearts to Jesus.

This year, the theme of Acquire the Fire, “Epic Truth”, emphasized the importance of seeking truth amidst our daily deluge of distractions, and more specifically, how to press into the heart of God when hard questions are inevitably thrown our way. So after recent pondering, God has faithfully deposited some carryout charges and prayer points in the wake of the event.



Here are three to chew on…

1) Pray against the "spiritual high"

• A post-event “free fall” is inevitable. Yet despite its outer connotation, a “free fall” doesn’t have to be perceived in a negative light. The ultimate question boils down to heart and location. As people of God, it's imperative we stand in the gap and pray for all people who encountered the presence & power of God at ATF to fall into the deeper places of God's heart, not to man's idea of reality. For one thing, reality isn't confined to the tangible world we daily sense (Romans 8:14-16). Furthermore, the Spirit of God leads us to the heart of God, where our true identity can be found. So we can see why Satan would love to disrupt our understanding and reduce a powerful weekend to a mere internal buzz. Why give him such a footstool?

• When Moses went up the mountain, he went to encounter and experience God in a fresh, new way. And when he came down Mount Sinai, he carried something with him he hadn’t had before…whether it was the Ten Commandments, new revelation and/or a glowing countenance (Exodus 34). While Moses repeatedly returned to the same geographical level, his relationship with God never returned to the same level. Rather, his relationship with God kept escalating to the extent He encountered the glory of God and to the extent He gave glory to God. And this would end up leaving a transparent, inspiring mark for all to see.

2) Pray for new believers & recommitted Christians to stay the course

• Pray for love to respond to love as Christ establishes residence

"…because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction." ~ 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (ESV)

• Pray for new believers/recommitted Christians to align themselves (desires, ambitions, perceptions of world & identity, etc.) to the good work & will of God

“This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.” ~ John 6:39-40 (MSG)

 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” ~ Ephesians 1:13-14 (ESV)

• Pray for new believers to learn how to pray, how to receive & allow the Spirit to guide them in their Bible reading & how to be empowered for ministry

3) Pray for ears to hear, hearts to receive 

• Pray for God's word (both written and verbal) to be a lamp unto each young person's feet and light unto their path (Psalm 119:105).

• Pray for youth to not be afraid to be still to sense the thoughts, impressions and visions of God

“Whoever is of God listens to God. [Those who belong to God hear the words of God.] This is the reason that you do not listen [to those words, to Me]: because you do not belong to God and are not of God or in harmony with Him.” ~ John 8:47 (AMP)

• Pray for clear channels and intentional listening/seeking amidst the increased volume of worldly noise; pray for forward motion, not backwards motion

“But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” ~ Jeremiah 7:23-24 (ESV)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.