Prayer Insights

We believe God has granted insights to people during the preparation for the conference, during the conference and at the end of the conference

On this page, you can read each of these insights in summarised form.

If any of those who have been involved, either by attending the conference centre or by sharing with us in worldwide prayer, have any other insights they wish to share with us, we would love to hear about them.

You can email us at insights@pray4bam.org and we will post your information for you.

If you require any additional information about the conference or what we believe God might be doing with this initiative in the future, please don't hesitate to email us and we will do our best to answer your questions.



Testimony

Testimony Submitted by Location
My intent to track with you was a bit idealistic because of our time difference. But I did pray some... Saturday I checked the insights and I was really impressed to see that I could read what was coming forth. And I just finished reading the reviews.
I know that the Lord is pleased with your desires, intentions and perseverance. You have honoured Him and sought His will and His way.
The prayers He authored through y'all will make an eternal difference. And many will be encouraged to make prayer central and a priority.
I am reminded of the struggles that you have had at times about relationships...no surprise that the enemy would target you in that area. Be sure to be on guard with your thought life, the enemy is not happy.
Thanks for letting me share in something that was important to you and to the Lord. 		Sue USA
I am praying for you and for the BaM Prayer Conference from Brazil.
The bam website (www.pray4bam.org) is great. Well done!
It is exciting to see people getting involved with this BaM and with Prayer. I believe that business is part of the solution for the future of our movement.
As you already heard from me, I like the idea of Jews learning from their parents how to have a profession/skill that would allow them to survive and live in the world.
I hope our sending bases will be able to well prepare the new candidates teaching them some skills for their lives and ministries. 		Carlos Brazil
I just wanted to say a big thank you for keeping us in touch via your Websight with what was happening with the Conference over the weekend. It's been brilliant to read the words and scriptures and reviews you posted. I was unable to come to the conference but maybe next year.
I love to pray for folk who run businesses in different countries but my overall impression is that these folk don't feel that they have a right to ask for prayer for their business - after all if they were ministering to the sick or poor or homeless then it would be fine to ask for prayer!!
I am sure that the conference will have encouraged many to pray for businesses and that people who have a business will also feel free to ask for more prayer. 		Cas Wales


Following the Conference

Insights Submitted by Location
The weekend has served as an illustration that one of the biggest needs faced by those involved with Business as Mission is more prayer. Review UK
Those who have experienced the work of intercession on behalf of Christian businesses are probably amongst the best ambassadors when it comes to encouraging more business people to set of prayer networks around their businesses. Review UK
When seeking for individuals to head up Christian businesses at directorship level, those who have already served faithfully as intercessors for the business should be prime candidates. Review UK
It would be good if individuals who have experienced and heard God’s revelations over the weekend could help reproduce some of the same concepts of business prayer networks around their own businesses and those of other Christian businessmen and women. Review UK
Amongst other things, future emphasis should include increased emphasis on praying for God’s blessing on individual businesses. Review UK
Those who have participated in prayer for BaM have, at the same time, built a stronger bond with each other, whereby they might strengthen one another. Review UK
When Mary broke the pot of perfume, it was before her Lord who she knew well. Although it is something of a “chicken and egg” scenario we need to know God better before we can fully repent before Him. Review UK
Individuals interested in Business as Mission have often been associated with a haphazard and tangled network. As a result, many feel isolated. The prayer conference has helped to clarify the network connections with others who have similar interests; all of whom are linked around God who is at the centre. Review UK
In terms of mission and spirituality, business men and women often feel second-class "like grasshoppers in their own sight".
They need to be encouraged that all righteousness comes from God - it is not about us but about God.
For many, there needs to be a change of mindset to bring into alignment with God's thinking. 		Review UK


During the Conference

Insights Submitted by Location
I saw a picture of a person coming behind another person who was sitting down. They were carrying a large, soft blanket which they wrapped around the person who was sitting down. I felt the Lord saying that is what He wants to do for us – He wants to wrap us in a security blanket of His love. He want so snuggle us in. Conference UK
Picture of a fine cashmere shawl that has been put away and then taken out because it is too good to be kept hidden, only to find that moths have eaten a hole in it. There seems to be no means of effecting a repair other than to take a thread from elsewhere in the garment that can be used to repair the hole. This speaks of sacrifice to restore that which has been damaged. Conference UK
Someone is contemplating returining home from a successful venture but it seems that the time is not right - that the message is more of going rather than returning.
Associated words are "shipping", "insurance", "ships", "overseas".
"The 12 elders stood up and said 'Go'" 		Conference UK
His presence – always with us. Conference UK
Perhaps we need to repent at times from a Christian "triumphalism" attitude and recognise there are poor and broken people in our world. We need to be real with ourselves and then trust God to bring victory and prosperity in His way and in His time. Conference UK
Joseph suffered much and long before God brought him to the position as a businessman that blessed nations. So we need to be humbled by God so that we can be used by Him. Conference UK
Eternal Father, you never had a beginning. You will never have an ending. You are the Alpha and the Omega. This we believe, because you have revealed it to us. Our hearts leap up with gratitude that you have opened our eyes to see and know that Jesus Christ is your eternal, divine Son, begotten, not made, and that you, O Father, and he, your Son, are one God. We tremble even to take such glorious truths on our lips for fear of dishonouring you with withering and inadequate words. But we must speak, because we must praise you. Silence would shame us, and the rocks themselves would cry out. You must be praised for who you are in the world you have made. And we must thank you because you have made us taste and see the glory of Jesus Christ, your Son. Oh, to know him! Father, we long to know him. Banish from our minds low thoughts of Christ. Saturate our souls with the capacities to be satisfied in all that you are for us in him. Where flesh and blood are impotent, reveal to us the Christ, and rivet our attention and our affections on the truth and beauty of your all-glorious Son. And grant that whether rich or poor, sick or sound, we might be transformed by him and become an echo of his excellence in the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. John Piper, Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ, Inter-varsity press, London 2001 - UK
Business in Georgia is joining with us in prayer and also asks prayer for their own business:
  • Need for good relationships with landlords and neighbours
  • Ability to maintain a reliable supply chain, especially for the key ingredients
  • Local believers to partner with in this business and for helpers
 - Georgia
As Israel needs to return to the Lord, so business people also need to be gathered together to the Lord and in so doing, peoples and nations to the Lord. Conference UK
The feeble make their homes in the rocks, where they are safe. We may be unsure of what we are becoming involved with, but we will be safe in the rock of the Lord. Conference UK
In the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, a story was circulating of a hen that gathered her chicks to protect them in fire. When the fire passed, the hen had been killed but the chicks were saved alive. Conference UK
Like a hen gathers her chicks, so we should seek to hide under the wings of our God. Our Lord seeks and desires each of us to run to Him for safety. Too many of us are not willing due to some kind of duty or religious lie that is opposed to the spiritual instinct to run and hide in the Lord. We need to break off every false vision or word that restrains us from abandoning ourselves to the safety of the Lord. Beware of false expectations. Conference UK
Picture of a person enclosed, wrapped in bandages. The bandages are impregnated with God's love.
He wants us to let the love from the bandages soak in, be absorbed and reach the waste places that He wants to nourish and bring to life. 		Conference UK
There's a cry for the Lord from so many faces we see on TV and in the flesh. Some are already in the kingdom and others are not yet, but there is a cry from their hearts. Conference UK
There is a candle in a room full of furniture. The candle is the smallest item in the room and yet all the other items of furniture are looking at the candle. In like manner God uses the small things to shine for Him. Conference UK
There is a need for God to make old things new so that He can fill up that which has the ability to receive from Him. Conference UK
The Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Conference UK
Mary said to the angel, "Let it be to me according to Your word". When God has brought about change in us such that we are ready to respond to His word, then He will speak to us. Conference UK
Like Mary, many people say, "How can this be?" Everything must be of God as we are overshadowed by the Holy Spirit – experiencing a fresh expression of God's love. Conference UK
Acts 5:42 "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ." (from New International Version)
The house in the first century was not just the place of residence but the place of business. It was the factory, the store, the carpenter and the tent maker's shop. The place of business was the life of the church and from where the church grew and expanded to the nations.
Though I could not attend the conference, my prayers are with you.		 Andy Clark World Horizons US Office


Preparation for the Conference

Insights Submitted by Location
I saw a piece of cloth that had been torn being sown back together by God with gold thread. He was holding the needle and sewing the cloth back together.
This to me was linked with a prayer that David S had prayed about God being involved and changing business over the last 20 years and thanking God for this. I felt God was lovingly restoring business back to its original designs and purposes. I felt God say business was the trailblazer and other things like the health system and education would follow but business first.
I got the impression that this prayer conference is part of all this. It might just be one tiny part of the gold thread but it is part of a much bigger picture and plan and purpose that God has of restoration. Restoration can be minute and huge.
I love how God works on all these different levels at the same time. He will be restoring individuals at the prayer conference and will also be restoring systems and huge plans for the nations and the world He has created. 		Planning Team UK
Through the conference the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms
Ephesians 3:10		 Planning Team UK
A picture of an empty glove (the organisation of the conference) will be empty unless God comes and fills it. As He inhabits the conference He gently touches lives and powerfully crushes the schemes of the enemy Planning Team UK
Like Jonathan's attack on the Philistines, the prayer conference is small. As Jonathan stepping out in faith triggered God to step in and act against the enemy – the victory was significant - so the Prayer Conference will be the trigger for God to do something 'more than we have asked or imagined'
I Samuel 14:6-13 & 15ff 		Planning Team UK
"I will proclaim the decree of the Lord; He said to me 'Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.'"
Psalm 2:7-8		 Planning Team UK
A picture of the Pied Piper, who had no idea that the tune he played would attract so many Planning Team UK
Doors, roads, gates, bridges – these are significant illustrations of the work that God will accomplish Planning Team UK
God bares His Holy arm. The ends of the earth will see His salvation
Isaiah 52:10		 Planning Team UK
The picture of a large boat coming into dock laden with blessings
The sea is made up of Asian faces who receive with great joy the blessings from the ship 		Planning Team UK
We will see God's faithfulness and blessing on the nations through BaM with wealth and trade
2 Chronicles 1		 Planning Team UK
Blessing through BaM to families and communities and nations
1Chronicles 16:3 		Planning Team UK
Testimony of what God has done and which glorifies him is important for the conference
1Chronicles 16		 Planning Team UK
'When they had sung a hymn they went out to the mount of Olives' Mark 14:26
The simplicity and normality of the image of Jesus and the disciples singing together (with no special backing) before facing the defining moment of their lives		 Planning Team UK
More praise for the conference
IChronicles 10-14		 Planning Team UK
Soaking the work of BaM in prayer Planning Team UK
We will seek the Lord, there will be extravagant worship, there will be petition
2Chronicles 1 		Planning Team UK
On the last day we'll take communion together Nehemiah 8 & Ezra 3 Planning Team UK
There will be repentance Planning Team UK
There is to be great rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving
Ezra 3:10-11; 1Chronicles 16:4 & 8-36 		Planning Team UK
Asking God to bring the right delegates as He brought the right animals into the ark Genesis 6:20b Planning Team UK
One step at a time – this is the test! Planning Team UK
Habakkuk is an important scripture for us, especially chapters 1 & 2 Planning Team UK
Spend time in the presence of God as a priority for all else springs from this
Exodus 33:12-23 		Planning Team UK
As God helped the Levites bear the ark so God will help us Planning Team UK
Like taking the ark back into Jerusalem so we must consult God about everything regarding the conference so we do it His way and not ours.
1Chronicles 13 & 15:12ff		 Planning Team UK
All the people gathered as one man
Nehemiah 8:1		 Planning Team UK